i i.-i e 



EMERGENCY IK CHIEA 



Tr.^PTT POTT 





Class T 2>Y3 4/6" 

Book 7F. r T^ 

Copyright N° 



COPYRIGHT DEPOSIT. 



FORWARD MISSION STUDY COURSES 

EDITED UNDER THE DIRECTION OF THE 

MISSIONARY EDUCATION MOVEMENT 
OF THE UNITED STATES AND CANADA 



THE EMERGENCY 
IN CHINA 



Leaders' helps, to accompany each text-book in the Forward 
Mission Study Courses, and special denominational helps, 
may be obtained by corresponding with the secre- 
tary of your mission board or society. 




YUAN SHIH KAI 



[Frontispiece] 



THE EMERGENCY 
IN CHINA 



BY 

F. L. HAWKS POTT 




NEW YORK 

Missionary Education Movement of the 

United States and Canada 

*9»3 



* 



\)S 



w 



Copyright, 1913, by 

MISSIONARY EDUCATION MOVEMENT 

OF THE UNITED STATES AND CANADA 

New York 



/.J^> 



CI.A350095 



CONTENTS 

CHAPTER PAGE 

Telegram ix 

Preface xi 

I Introductory — Historical Review of China's Inter- 
national Relations 3 

II Results of the Recent Revolution 37 

III Industrial and Commercial Developments 81 

IV Social Transformation 109 

V New Education 143 

VI Religious Conditions 181 

VII The Influence of Christianity 215 

VIII Present and Future of the Christian Church 245 



APPENDIXES 

A The Orthography and Pronunciation of Chinese 

Names 279 

B Bibliography 281 

C Area and Population 286 

D Dates of Important Events in Modern Chinese 

History 288 

E A Table of Chinese Dynastic Dates 290 

F Opium 291 

G Unoccupied Fields 293 

H Railway Systems 294 

I Statistics of the Work of Protestant Missions in 

China for 1910 297 

Index 299 



ILLUSTRATIONS 

Yuan Shih Kai Frontispiece 

Empress Dowager Page 24 

Sun Yat Sen " 40 

Map of Chinese Empire " 46 

First Republican Assembly " 56 

Interior of a Legislative Assembly " 56 

Railway Map of China " 83 

Train on Shanghai -Hangchow Railway " 88 

Soochow Station, Shanghai- Nanking Railway " 88 

Interior Hanyang Iron and Steel Works " 98 

Hill Sixty-five Per Cent. Iron Ore C1 98 

Poppy Field of the Past " 114 

Burning Opium Pipes " 1 14 

Chinese Cadets " 134 

Chart Showing Educational System " 151 

Government Normal School, Canton — 800 Students. . " 154 

Ancestor Worship at the Grave " 188 

Paper Horse, Cart, and Slaves to Burn at the Grave " 188 

Temple Converted into Christian School " 200 

Temple Converted into Government School " 200 

St. John's University, Shanghai " 218 

Martin Hall, Canton Christian College M 218 

Dr. Arthur Jackson " 222 

Methodist Publishing House, Shanghai " 232 

Shanghai Mission Press, Shanghai " 232 

Ding Li Mei, Chinese Evangelist M 250 

Temple of Heaven " 254 

Self-supporting Church, Yu Yao, near Ningpo " 254 

Colored Map End 



TELEGRAM 

Peking, April 19, 1913. 
Secretary of State, 
Washington, 

April 19, 9 A. M. Your telegram of April 18, 
11 A.M. 

The following message adopted by the Cabinet 
was sent yesterday by the Chinese Government to 
the provincial authorities and leaders of the Chris- 
tian churches in China: 

"Prayer is requested for the National Assembly 
now in session ; for the new Government ; for the 
President who is to be elected; for the Constitution 
of the Republic; that the Government may be 
recognized by the powers; that peace may reign 
within our country; that strong and virtuous men 
may be elected to office; and that the Government 
may be established upon a strong foundation. 
Upon receipt of this telegram you are requested 
to notify all churches in your province that April 
twenty-seventh has been set aside as a day of 
prayer for the nation. Let all take part." 

WILLIAMS. 
Charge d'affaires. 



IX 



PREFACE 

The promise to write this book was given before 
the Revolution broke out. It seemed comparatively 
easy when the task was first undertaken to give a 
brief summary of present conditions in China, and 
to point out some of the currents of thought which 
sooner or later would produce startling results, but 
the difficulties increased a hundred fold after China 
had been shaken to its foundation by the sudden 
political tempest. 

To write of present conditions seemed somewhat 
like attempting to describe the transitory images 
produced in a kaleidoscope, inasmuch as everything 
was in flux, and nothing was permanent for any 
length of time. 

One felt that the writing of some of the chapters 
must be postponed as long as possible, in hope that 
a state of partial equilibrium might be reached be- 
fore they were penned. As a matter of fact Chap- 
ter II on the "Results of the Recent Revolution" 
was the last one taken in hand. 

Although everything is changing and it is be- 
yond human ken to know the final result, yet there 
are certain great forces at work which will not dis- 
appear. The surface may be stormy, but the waters 
beneath are still. Believing as we do in a God of 

xi 



xii Preface 

history, we can await in patience and faith the 
working out of his plan in regard to this country. 

We know that progress could only come by the 
break-up of the old conservative and corrupt regime, 
and that in the end something better and higher 
will be produced. 

It is a transition period, and this is what we 
have tried to emphasize. It would be foolish to 
give way, as some do, to feelings of undue exulta- 
tion. The destructive work has been accomplished, 
but the constructive has only begun, and it must 
extend over a long period of time. 

Because it is a transition period, the opportunity 
to influence China is all the greater. Before the 
new civilization crystallizes, now, during the time 
when everything is in solution, the most determined 
effort should be made to win China for Christ. 

We have tried to write soberly and to state facts. 
We have pointed out the many encouraging features 
of the situation and at the same time its dangers 
and difficulties. Our hope is that the book may help 
to rouse interest in one of the most important move- 
ments the world has ever seen, and inspire the 
Church to greater missionary activity so that China 
may be more powerfully influenced by the spiritual 
and moral forces of the religion of Christ. 

F. L. Hawks Pott. 
Shanghai, China, 
February 15, 1913. 



INTRODUCTORY— HISTORICAL REVIEW OF 
CHINA'S INTERNATIONAL RELATIONS 



CHAPTER I 

INTRODUCTORY— HISTORICAL REVIEW OF 
CHINA'S INTERNATIONAL RELATIONS 

No other nation with which the world is acquainted 
has been so constantly true to itself; no other nation 
has developed a civilization so completely independent 
of any extraneous influences; no other nation has elab- 
orated its ideals in such absolute segregation from 
alien thoughts; no other nation has preserved the 
long stream of its literature so entirely free from for- 
eign affluents; no other nation has ever reached a 
moral and national elevation so high above the heads 
of contemporary states. 

— Captain Frank Brinkley, quoted by William T. Ellis 

Ideas of the Orient Reversed. Formerly writers 
of history were very positive in their statements 
as to the impossibility of higher national and social 
development on the part of Eastern peoples. They 
maintained that these nations had already reached 
the summit of their evolution, and no further prog- 
ress in the future was to be expected. Such theo- 
rizing has been sadly upset by what has already 
transpired in Japan and China. The Island Empire 
was the first to prove the possibility of the rejuve- 
nation of an Eastern people by the assimilation of 

3 



4 The Emergency in China 

elements of Western civilization. She emerged like 
a bright new star of the first magnitude, and in an 
incredibly short period of time won for herself 
a place among the great powers of the world. Now 
we are witnessing a similar movement in the old 
civilization of China, and are still rubbing our eyes 
with astonishment. In years to come, when his- 
torians review the story of the twentieth century, 
they will point out as the most remarkable events 
of modern times the appearance of China and 
Japan upon the stage of the world's drama, and 
will show how it influenced the whole course of 
future civilization. 

Review of China's Foreign Relations. In this 
chapter we shall attempt to review briefly the his- 
tory of China's foreign relations, and trace out the 
political causes which have led her to abandon 
her old policy of exclusiveness and to modernize 
her government and social institutions so as to take 
her rightful place in the family of progressive na- 
tions. 

Character of China's Civilization. We are famil- 
iar with the fact that China reached a high stage 
of civilization long before the beginning of the 
Christian era, but perhaps we do not sufficiently 
bear in mind that it was a civilization developed in 
isolation from the rest of the world. The geographi- 
cal position of China cut her off from being influ- 
enced to any appreciable extent by other races and 
nations. There were ancient trade routes to India 
and Persia, and the outlying provinces of the Rck 



Review of China's International Relations 5 

man Empire, but they did not serve as highways 
by which new forces found their way into the em- 
pire. The greatest external influence was that 
exerted by the Buddhist missionaries who came 
from India in 62 A. D., in the reign of the Emperor 
Ming-Ti, and this foreign element has undoubtedly 
modified Chinese civilization to a certain extent. 
China, however, is like a sea which renders salt 
all the waters which flow into it, and Chinese 
Buddhism has been so transformed that it differs in 
many respects from the original cult. Thus the 
civilization of the East and the West were de- 
veloped independently of one another, and China 
was as little known to the West as the West was 
to her. 

Visit of Marco Polo. In the thirteenth century 
Marco Polo, the celebrated Venetian traveler, made 
his journey to China. During his long sojourn he 
learned much about Chinese civilization, and upon 
his return to Europe he astounded the people of the 
West by the stories he told in regard to what had 
been up to that time almost an unknown part of 
the world. 

Early Attitude of China. The attitude of China 
toward foreigners throughout the Middle Ages was 
quite different from what it became at a later pe- 
riod. "The imperial government placed the aliens 
practically on the same footing as its own subjects: 
it opened to them public employments and ex- 
tended to them the fullest protection. Olopun, one 
of the Nestorians who entered China in the Tang 



6 The Emergency in China 

Dynasty, was raised to the rank of high priest and 
national protector by Emperor Kautsung. Marco 
Polo, though a Venetian by birth, was appointed 
to the office of prefect of Yangchow, which he held 
for three years. John de Corvino, a Romish mis- 
sionary, was given an imperial audience, and al- 
lowed to build a Catholic church with a steeple 
and bells, preach the gospel, and baptize, even in 
the capital of the empire." 1 

Coming of the Portuguese. The first people from 
Europe to come knocking at the door of China 
asking for permission to trade were the adventurous 
Portuguese. In 1517 Fernao Peres de Andrade 
entered the Canton River with two ships and de- 
manded the privilege of commercial intercourse. 
The Chinese received these strangers from over the 
seas in a kindly spirit. In a short time however 
the feeling of amity was turned into one of deadly 
hatred, on account of the high-handed manner in 
which the Portuguese acted toward those with 
whom they entered into business relations. The 
disorderly conduct of the Portuguese colonists, who 
had settled at Ningpo, caused the generally pacific 
Ming Emperor in 1545 to give orders that they 
should be attacked by land and sea. As a result an 
assault was made on the colony in which, accord- 
ing to report, 12,000 Christians, including 800 Por- 
tuguese, were massacred. 

Coming of the Spaniard. Next the Spaniards 

1 V. K. W. Koo, The Status of Aliens in China, 19. 



Review of China's International Relations 7 

made their appearance in 1575, but they failed to 
restore the prestige of Westerners in the eyes of 
the Chinese. They made a settlement in the Philip- 
pine Islands which they held until the recent war 
between the United States and Spain. The Chinese 
emigrated in large numbers to Manila, the capital 
of the islands. The Spaniards, fearful lest all the 
trade should fall into the hands of successful Chi- 
nese merchants, and alarmed lest they should lose 
their control of the islands, instituted a barbarous 
massacre, in which some 20,000 people were put to 
the sword. 

Reasons for Adoption of "Closed Door" Policy. 
From this time a marked change took place in the 
attitude of the Chinese government toward foreign- 
ers. Vigorous measures of surveillance and restric- 
tion were adopted, and to a large extent alien mer- 
chants and missionaries were excluded from the 
empire. The causes of this new attitude may be 
briefly summarized as follows: In the first place, 
the reports of the conquest of the East Indies, and 
the forcible occupation of parts of India and the 
Malay Peninsula by Portuguese adventurers 
awakened the suspicions of the Chinese as to the 
ulterior motives of the foreigners rapidly flocking 
to their shores. They feared this aggression, espe- 
cially at a time when there was much internal dis- 
order in the empire. In the second place, from her 
own experience China did not receive favorable 
first impressions of Europeans, and the cruelty of 
Portuguese and Spaniards had not a little to do 



8 The Emergency in China 

with the formation of the opinion that all West- 
erners were barbarians. 

Divergent Ideals. Furthermore, we should bear 
in mind the divergence of the ideals of Western 
and Eastern civilization. The word "progress" 
sums up the spirit of Western civilization. It is 
full of restlessness, desire for change, and looks 
forward to better conditions. On the other hand, 
the East longs for rest, peace, and the maintenance 
of the equilibrium. The one is characterized by as- 
piration, the other by the desire to conserve the 
past. It is easy to see how difficult it has been 
for the two civilizations to understand each other 
and to harmonize. Until recently they have had 
entirely different view-points. 

Embassies from Russia and Holland. In the 
reign of Kang Hsi (1662-1723), the second of the 
Manchu emperors, two European embassies ar- 
rived at Peking for the purpose of opening up com- 
mercial relations. One came overland from Russia 
by way of Siberia, and the other from Holland by 
sea. Neither met with success in obtaining the 
privileges they sought, for the Chinese considering 
their own emperor superior to all other barbarian 
nations refused to treat on terms of equality with 
their representatives. This contemptuous attitude 
toward other nations accounts for the insistence on 
the part of the Chinese that the kowtow x should 

1 The word kowtow means the knocking of the head on the 
ground. The ceremony consists of three kneelings and nine 
prostrations with the head touching the ground. 



Review of China's International Relations 9 

be performed before his imperial majesty by all for- 
eign envoys who visited the court. They regarded 
them as coming from countries standing in the rela- 
tion of tributary or vassal states to the great Middle 
Kingdom. The envoys, realizing the real signifi- 
cance of this lowly act of obeisance, persistently 
refused to comply with the demand for its perform- 
ance. The Dutch submitted, but did not gain any- 
thing by their compliance. 

Beginning of Commercial Relations with Eng- 
land. Commercial relations between England and 
China began in 1635, during the reign of Charles I. 
A charter was at that time granted to a company of 
merchants desiring to promote commerce with 
China, and Captain John Weddell sailed for the 
East with a small fleet of vessels. The Portu- 
guese who had by this time settled at Macao viewed 
with jealousy the arrival of these new aspirants for 
trade, and stirred up the Chinese to resist their de- 
mands, reporting them to be rogues, thieves, beg- 
gars, and what not, so that they became suspicious 
of the real meaning of the English. Consequently, 
when the English fleet was passing the Bogue 
forts on the way up to Canton, a Chinese battery 
suddenly opened fire. The British ships retaliated, 
and after silencing the guns of the battery, landed 
a party of sailors, took possession of the forts, and 
hoisted their colors. Then proceeding to Canton, 
Captain Weddell disposed of his cargo, loaded his 
vessels with Chinese merchandise, and returned to 
England. After this beginning, trade gradually 



10 The Emergency in China 

developed between the two countries, until in 1715 
the East India Company decided to establish a fac- 
tory, that is, a trading post, at Canton, with a per- 
manent staff, and to send out ships at stated sea- 
sons for the exchange of commodities with the 
Chinese merchants. 

Wholly a Response to Pressure. We have dwelt 
in some detail upon the beginnings of European 
intercourse with China, because it is important 
that we should bear clearly in mind China's former 
attitude toward the people of other nations. She 
never desired to enter into closer relations with 
them, and only yielded to their demands on ac- 
count of the pressure which they brought to bear 
upon her. 

Mission of Earl of Macartney. Two missions 
were sent to China from Great Britain for the pur- 
pose of arriving at a better understanding in regard 
to the trade between the two countries — one under 
the Earl of Macartney in 1793, and the other under 
Lord Amherst in 1816. The vessel upon which 
the Earl of Macartney proceeded up the Peiho 
River to the capital displayed a flag bearing in 
Chinese the inscription, "An envoy bearing tribute 
from England." When he reached Peking a con- 
troversy took place in regard to the kowtow. He 
consented to perform this ceremony, provided a 
Chinese official of equal rank with himself, dressed 
in robes of state, should do likewise before a por- 
trait of his Britannic majesty. Ultimately it was ar- 
ranged that, on approaching the emperor, he should 



Review of China's International Relations n 

bend one knee — the mark of respect which he 
would show to his own sovereign. As far as con- 
cerns a settlement in regard to trading privileges, 
his visit proved entirely fruitless. 

Mission of Lord Amherst. Lord Amherst in 1816 
met with even ruder treatment. On his way to 
the capital the Chinese officials wrangled with him 
upon the subject of the kowtow. When he reached 
the summer palace at Yuen-min-yuen at five o'clock 
in the morning, his Chinese escort insisted on tak- 
ing him to an immediate audience. Lord Amherst 
pleaded fatigue, and the non-arrival of his court 
dress and of his credentials, and asked to have the 
audience postponed. Thereupon the Chinese au- 
thorities informed him that he was to start at once 
upon his return journey. Thus his mission ended 
in a humiliating failure. 

Appointment of Lord Napier. The next chapter 
of commercial relations between Great Britain and 
China began in 1833 when the control of the British 
trade at Canton passed out of the hands of the 
East India Company, and Lord Napier was ap- 
pointed as Commercial Superintendent of the Brit- 
ish government in China. In the letter of instruc- 
tions received from Lord Palmerston there was the 
following short paragraph, which "acted as a fuse 
to fire the petard" : "Your Lordship will announce 
your arrival at Canton by letter to the Viceroy." 
This virtually implied that his status was that of 
a royal envoy and not of a mere superintendent of 
trade, and surpassed all former precedents in of- 



12 The Emergency in China 

fending Chinese prejudice. As is well known, he 
was never able to carry out these instructions and 
surmount the obstacles placed in his way. The 
Chinese carried on their trade with the British 
merchants through a company of Chinese mer- 
chants, known as the Co-hong, and the British mer- 
chants had no direct access whatever to the Chinese 
authorities. The Chinese could not understand why 
the British government had the temerity to demand 
that there should be communication on terms of 
equality between an official representative of Great 
Britain and the viceroy of Canton. Sooner than 
consent to what appeared to be a great indignity, 
for a time they put a stop to all intercourse, and 
it was not until Lord Napier had withdrawn to 
Macao that the embargo on trade was removed. 
China was unwilling to remove the restrictions on 
commerce, or to receive envoys except as tribute 
bearers. It was impossible to obtain concessions 
from her on these points except by force of arms. 
Opium Question and Appointment of Commis- 
sioner Lin Tse-su. Very unfortunately the armed 
conflict arose over the question of the importation 
of opium. The Emperor Tao Kwang, who suc- 
ceeded to the imperial throne in 1820, determined 
to enforce the law for the prohibition of opium in 
China. "His motive was pure, and his earnestness 
unquestioned," but owing to the dishonesty of the 
native officials he found the measure hard to carry 
out. He appointed Lin Tse-su Imperial High Com- 
missioner to investigate and deal with the situation 



Review of China's International Relations 13 

at Canton, where the foreign merchants with the 
connivance of the native authorities were carrying 
on an extensive trade in the drug. A short time 
after his arrival at Canton he demanded from the 
foreign merchants the surrender of all the opium in 
their possession, and a pledge that their govern- 
ment or governments should enact that the "mer- 
chants are to pay implicit obedience to the prohib- 
iting laws of the celestial court, must not again 
introduce opium into the inner land, and will no 
longer be allowed to manufacture opium." The 
foreign merchants were kept confined in their fac- 
tories and pressure was brought to bear upon them. 
Finally, acting on the advice of Captain Elliot, at 
that time Chief Superintendent of British Trade, 
20,291 chests, valued at $306,840, were delivered 
up to Commissioner Lin Tse-su and were com- 
pletely destroyed (June 3, 1839). 

Other Causes of Friction. Further difficulties 
soon arose. Although after the surrender of the 
opium permission to trade again was granted by 
the Chinese authorities, yet it was hedged about by 
many vexatious restrictions. On July 1, 1839, a 
party of sailors while on shore on the Kowloon 
side of the Hongkong anchorage became involved 
in a shameful riot attended with unmanly outrage 
upon men, women, and children, and the loss of in- 
nocent life. A Chinese named Lin Wei-hi was 
killed in the fracas and the officials immediately 
insisted that the murderer should be handed over 
to them by the British authorities, although Cap- 



14 The Emergency in China 

tain Elliot repeatedly protested that it was impossi- 
ble to discover the guilty person. Furthermore, 
Commissioner Lin Tse-su still brought many 
charges of opium smuggling against British mer- 
chants. 

Causes of First Anglo-Chinese War. Such was 
the train of events leading up to the first war be- 
tween Great Britain and China. It is always re- 
ferred to in China as the Opium War and the Chi- 
nese can never be convinced that the British 
fought for any other reason than to retaliate for 
the opium destroyed by Commissioner Lin Tse-su 
and because they were loath to relinquish this lu- 
crative source of profit. In the famous letter writ- 
ten by Commissioner Lin Tse-su to Queen Victoria 
he is entirely silent as to any other cause of dis- 
pute. Without in the least condoning this im- 
moral and illegal trade, we can clearly see that 
sooner or later there was bound to be a clash be- 
tween the two countries. The first war with China 
was but the beginning of a struggle between the 
extreme East and the West — the East refusing to 
treat on terms of equality diplomatically or com- 
mercially, with Western nations, and the West 
insisting on being so treated. We can sympathize 
w r ith the Chinese on account of their ignorance, 
but we must remember at the same time that it 
was an ignorance which refused to be enlightened 
except by force. 

Treaty of Nanking. The war was brought to a 
close by the Treaty of Nanking in 1842. The is- 



Review of China's International Relations 15 

land of Hongkong was ceded to Great Britain, an 
indemnity was paid for the opium destroyed, offi- 
cial correspondence was to be carried on on equal 
terms, and Canton, Amoy, Foochow, Ningpo, and 
Shanghai were opened to foreign trade as treaty 
ports, where foreigners could reside. The Chinese 
had yielded to force, and the terms of the treaty 
were most unpopular, especially in Canton and the 
South. No real change of attitude on the part of 
China toward foreign nations had been effected. 

Further Causes of Friction. There were many 
causes of friction between the Chinese and the 
British merchants. The former were determined 
to evade as long as possible the carrying out of 
the agreement in the Treaty of Nanking consenting 
to the opening of the city of Canton to foreigners. 
Even the British consul was unable to hold com- 
munication with the Chinese officials within the city 
walls. This extreme state of tension was bound 
sooner or later to lead to serious difficulties, and 
in October, 1856, an event occurred which precipi- 
tated hostilities and led to the second conflict be- 
tween Great Britain and China, usually called the 
Arrow War. 

Dispute Over the Arrow. The dispute arose 
over the hauling down of the British flag from the 
mast of a lorcha (a vessel with European hull 
and Chinese rigging) named the Arrow in the har- 
bor at Whampoa, and the removal by force there- 
from of twelve Chinese sailors by Chinese officials. 
The British government at Hongkong in order 



16 The Emergency in China 

to facilitate the trade of the Chinese colonists of 
the island, granted under certain restrictions sailing 
letters to Chinese vessels, giving them the protec- 
tion of the British flag. The vessel in question 
had been registered at Hongkong. 

Counter-claims. The British claimed that their 
national flag had been insulted, and that treaty 
arrangements had been violated. Mr. Harry S. 
Parkes, the British consul, demanded that the crew 
should be returned to the Arrow in the consul's 
presence, and agreed that if charged with any crime 
they would then be conveyed to the British con- 
sulate, where in conjunction with proper officers 
appointed by the Chinese officials the case should 
be investigated. The Chinese claimed that the 
British flag was not flying when the vessel was 
boarded, and insisted that they had a right to act 
as they had done because* they were in search 
of a notorious pirate, who had recently committed 
an act of piracy. Furthermore, they stated that 
the Arrow had no right to fly the British flag, in- 
asmuch as the time of her license had expired. 
This fact however could not have been known to 
them at the time when the vessel was boarded. 
As far as we can get at the evidence, there was no 
just cause for war, but hostilities were brought 
about by predisposing causes. 

Two Remaining Barriers to Intercourse. In ad- 
dition to the pride of the Chinese, which made it 
impossible for them to treat on terms of equality 
with men of other nations, there were reasons 



Review of China's International Relations 17 

which led the Chinese to regard with disfavor the 
increase of foreign intercourse. In the first place, 
there was the coolie traffic of Macao. Chinese 
coolies were constantly kidnaped., taken to Macao, 
and thence sent off on the forced contract svstem 
to work in Cuba, Peru, and California. In this ne- 
farious traffic the Portuguese were the greatest of- 
fenders. In the second place, there was the open 
sore of the continuance of the smuggling of opium, 
although the trade was illegal ; and it was often 
carried on by ships of the class to which the Arrow 
belonged. 

Alliance between Great Britain and France. The 
French government, actuated partly by the desire 
to seek reparation for the massacre of a missionary 
in west Kwangsi, and partly by the spirit of im- 
perial aggrandizement which had manifested itself 
during the reign of the Emperor Xapoleon III, 
joined with the British in hostilities against China. 
The allied forces of the two nations captured Can- 
ton, and then carried the war to the North. The 
Taku forts at the mouth of the Peiho River were 
taken and the Chinese were forced to sue for peace. 

Treaty of Tientsin. The war was brought to a 
close by the Treaty of Tientsin (June 26. 1858). 
Among the articles of the treaty were the following: 
The right of residence by foreign ministers in 
Peking, the opening up of five additional treaty 
ports, and the toleration of the Christian religion. 
At this time Russia and the United States, as well 
as Great Britain and France, made treaties with 



1 8 The Emergency in China 

China, although they had played no part in the 
conflict. There was a clause in the British and 
French treaties agreeing to the exchange of the 
ratifications at Peking. 

Difficulties in Regard to Ratification. Later on 
the Chinese tried to evade the carrying out of this 
provision, for by yielding to this demand they 
would go a long way toward recognizing the equal- 
ity of Western powers with China. When the al- 
lied fleet of Great Britain and France arrived at 
Taku they found that the forts had been strength- 
ened, and that the mouth of the Peiho had been 
blocked by barriers consisting of large stakes bound 
together with heavy chains. When they attempted 
to force the passage they met with vigorous resist- 
ance and were forced to retire. 

Expedition to Peking, This led to acts of re- 
prisal on the part of the British and the French 
and the despatch of an expedition to Peking. In 
this expedition, unfortunately for the good name of 
the West, the Summer Palace was destroyed as a 
punitive measure on account of the cruel death of 
some prisoners who had fallen into the hands of 
the Chinese. It was an act of vengeance more in 
keeping with the ethics of the country invaded 
than of the religion professed by the invaders. 

Effect of Machinery. It is interesting to remem- 
ber that one of the causes leading to the expansion 
of Western trade in the East was the introduction 
of machinery into England in the early part of the 
nineteenth century. The home market was unable 



Review of China's International Relations 19 

to consume the increased production, and an outlet 
was sought in foreign trade for the surplus com- 
modities. 

Treaty of Peking. After China had been humbled 
by the occupation of the capital, the Treaty of 
Peking was signed on October 22, i860. In addi- 
tion to the terms of the Treaty of Tientsin, Kow- 
loon was ceded to the British government and 
Tientsin was opened as a treaty port. Foreign 
envoys took up their residence at the capital, 
Sir Frederick Bruce representing Great Britain 
and the Hon. Anson Burlingame representing the 
United States. 

Painful Lesson Learned. So ended a struggle 
which had lasted for twenty-five years. The Chi- 
nese had been forced to learn the lesson that, 
whereas formerly China dictated the conditions 
under which international relations were to be car- 
ried on, now it was the Western nations which im- 
posed their will on China. 

Burlingame Mission. In 1867 the Chinese gov- 
ernment sent its first embassy to foreign countries. 
This consisted of three envoys, two Chinese, and 
one foreign, the latter being the Hon. Anson Bur- 
lingame, who had completed his term as United 
States minister to Peking. The object of the mis- 
sion was to win for China more favorable treatment 
from Western nations, and to represent the Chi- 
nese government as desirous of entering upon a 
course of progress on the lines of Western civiliza- 
tion. Much was expected at the time from this 



20 The Emergency in China 

tour, but the result was hardly commensurate with 
the anticipations. 

Riot at Tientsin. The antiforeign riot at Tientsin 
in 1870, in which the orphanage and cathedral be- 
longing to the Roman Catholic Church were 
burned, was an evidence of the great cloud of ig- 
norance and prejudice which still blinded the eyes 
of the masses in China in regard to foreigners. 
The rioters were incited by their belief in the ru- 
mors that the Sisters of Charity were in the habit 
of kidnaping children, and of taking out their 
hearts and eyes for the purpose of making medi- 
cine! 

First Imperial Audience. It was not until 1873 
that the first imperial audience for foreign ambas- 
sadors was held in Peking. Although on the sur- 
face this appeared to be a great step in advance, 
yet the fact that the audience took place in the 
"Pavilion of Purple Light/' a hall used for receiv- 
ing tributary nations, showed that in reality the 
pride of China was as strong as ever. 

Dr. Yung Wing and the Educational Mission. 
One of the first to see the imperative necessity of 
adopting a more liberal policy and of learning from 
the West was the late Dr. Yung Wing. He re- 
ceived his early education at the Morrison school 
in Hongkong, and was taken as a lad in 1847 to 
the United States by the Rev. S. R. Brown. He 
was the first Chinese student to study at Yale Uni- 
versity, and graduated in the class of 1854. On his 
return to his own country he at last succeeded, 



Review of China's International Relations 21 

after many disappointments, in persuading the Chi- 
nese government to send a party of young Chinese 
boys to the United States to be educated in the 
schools and colleges of that country. He believed 
that they would be the disseminators of the new 
learning in their own country, and that much 
might be expected from their influence. Unfor- 
tunately for the experiment, the conservative party 
in Peking becoming alarmed at the disastrous ef- 
fects which they believed would result from these 
denationalized Chinese young men when they re- 
turned to spread radical ideas in the empire, per- 
suaded the government to recall them just as most 
of them were on the eve of entering college. After 
they reached China their lot became a most un- 
enviable one, for they were treated by Chinese of- 
ficialdom with scorn and contumely. Some of them 
survived the period of their fiery trial, and in re- 
cent years have risen to positions of great impor- 
tance — notably Tang Shao-yi, the first Premier of 
the new Republic, Sir Chentung Liang Ch'eng, K. 
C. M. G., the recent minister to Berlin, H. E. Liang 
Tun-yen, ex-President of Board of Foreign Af- 
fairs, H. E. Jeme Tien-yu, the "Father of railways 
in China," Liu Yuk-lin, Minister in London, and 
Tong Kaison, representative of China at the Hague 
Conference. 

Reforms after War with France. After the war 
with France (1884-5), there were signs of a more 
progressive policy. There was a further extension 
of the telegraph system and a modification was 



22 The Emergency in China 

introduced in the time-honored system of govern- 
ment examinations. 1 Originally confined entirely 
to the classics, an attempt was now made to add 
mathematics and elementary science. Owing to the 
fact that the literary chancellors who conducted 
the examinations were themselves ignorant of these 
subjects, the reform was more on paper than a 
reality. As may well be imagined, this innova- 
tion was exceedingly unpopular with the literati, 
a class which up to a recent date has been the back- 
bone of conservatism in the country. They did not 
want the introduction of new knowledge and were 
thoroughly convinced that their own ancient books 
contained all the wisdom that was of real value. 

Yangtze Riots. The riots against foreigners 
along the Yangtze River in 1891 were largely in- 
cited by this class. For a short time central China 
was the scene of acts of violence and incendiarism, 
two British subjects, one a missionary and one an 
officer of the maritime customs, were murdered, and 
much damage was done to the buildings belonging 
to the missions. 

War with Japan. In the year 1894-5 China 
measured her strength with Japan. The cause of 
the war was a dispute in regard to Korea. The 
Island Empire had long been anxious to obtain a 
footing on the mainland, and was able to find a pre- 
text for hostilities because the Chinese government, 

1 In Chapter V will be found a full account of the old 
civil service examination system as it existed in China pre- 
vious to the days of reform. See pages 143-150. 



Review of China's International Relations 23 

without giving formal notification, violated an 
agreement by sending troops to Korea to quell a 
disturbance. 

Consequences of the War. The consequences of 
the brief struggle were for China disastrous in the 
extreme. She was brought under the searchlight, 
and the weakness, the ignorance, and the corrup- 
tion of her government were revealed to the world 
more clearly than ever before. The immediate re- 
sults of the war were the loss of Korea, and the pay- 
ment of a large indemnity, but the subsequent re- 
sults were much more grievous. From that time 
there began on the part of Western nations a 
strong policy of aggression. It was as if the eagles 
had gathered about the carcass, for China was ut- 
terly helpless and unable to offer resistance to the 
demands made upon her. 

Foreign Aggression. In 1897 Germany seized 
Kiaochow, on the south of Shantung Peninsula, 
taking as a pretext the murder of two German 
Roman Catholic missionaries, in the southern part 
of the province of Shantung. Russia viewed this 
move of Germany with an unfavorable eye, inas- 
much as it brought another European power into 
the sphere of influence in northern China which she 
coveted for herself. Consequently she demanded 
a lease of Port Arthur and Talienwan from China 
on the same terms as those under which Germany 
held Kiaochow. In the surrender of Port Arthur, 
China lost one of the strongest naval bases in the 
world. Great Britain put in a claim for the lease 



24 The Emergency in China 

of Wei-hai-wei, France claimed and obtained the 
lease of Kwangchow in Kwangtung. In 1899 Italy 
demanded the cession of San-Mun Bay in Chekiang 
Province, but at last the Chinese government, de- 
spite its former ready acquiescence, offered a stren- 
uous resistance. The Empress Dowager who had 
assumed the control of affairs was determined to 
put a stop to further filching of territory. What- 
ever her faults, she saw that something must be 
done, or the days of China as an independent na- 
tion were numbered. 

Reforms of Emperor Kuang Hsu. In the spring 
of 1898, the Emperor Kuang Hsu, powerfully in- 
fluenced by a band of young reformers, the chief of 
whom were K'ang Yu-wei and Liang Ch'i-ch'ao, 
entered upon a program of radical reform, for he 
was convinced that only in this way could the ship 
of state escape foundering on the rocks. Among 
the reforms was the complete revision of the 
ancient examination system. Being anxious to 
modernize China without further delay, he also 
took steps to reorganize the government, doing 
away with a host of useless officials. 

Coup D'Etat of Empress Dowager. The Em- 
press Dowager alarmed by the sweeping changes, 
and believing that the foundations of the Manchu 
dynasty would be undermined, seized the reins of 
government by a coup d'etat, placed the Emperor 
in confinement, and instituted a reign of terror 
against the reform party. Reaction became the or- 
der of the day, and everything reverted to its 




Photograph, Under-wood and Underu-ood 

EMPRESS DOWAGER 



Ip2i] 



Review of China's International Relations 25 

former condition. The Emperor and the reformers, 
impressed by the strength displayed by Japan, had 
been anxious to see China follow in her footsteps 
and assimilate elements of progress from Western 
civilization. The Empress Dowager became the 
champion of the old conservative party and strenu- 
ously opposed all innovations. 

Boxer Outbreak. It was largely due to her that 
the Boxer outbreak became possible, for this move- 
ment could never have gained the strength it did 
unless the government had secretly sympathized 
with its aims. In that wild outburst of bigotry, 
frenzy, and ignorance, of the year 1900, we see gath- 
ered to a focus all the elements in China opposed to 
progress. Incited by acts of foreign aggression 
and spoliation, and convinced that foreign inter- 
course had only resulted in the repeated humilia- 
tion of China, they attempted to get rid of foreign 
domination and to throw off the yoke which galled 
them. In their blindness they thought it could be 
done by the Chinese rising in their might and 
sweeping the Western barbarians into the sea. 
Root and branch must be destroyed, and every 
vestige of foreign influence exterminated. The 
storm vented its fury in the northern provinces, 
and Christian missions, because they were asso- 
ciated with foreigners, felt the full force of the 
blast. 

Confined to the North. As an evidence of the 
fact, however, that the leaven of enlightenment had 
already made itself felt, it is to be noted that the 



26 The Emergency in China 

outbreak was confined to the North. Many of the 
officials of China, especially the viceroys of the 
central and southern provinces, saw with clear 
vision the tremendous mistake of the North, and by 
refusing to join in the movement saved the nation 
from utter ruin and chaos. 

Reform Movements. When at last China had 
been humbled and peace restored, the program of 
the reform party was again adopted, and the Em- 
press Dowager, always an opportunist, advocated 
the very measures she had formerly so vigorously 
resisted. Among the most far-reaching reforms 
was the abolition of the ancient government exam- 
inations, and the introduction of a new system of 
schools and colleges throughout the empire. In 
1905 a special Board of Education was appointed, 
and the new education advanced by leaps and 
bounds. Great activity was displayed in railroad 
building, and in the development of new industries. 
The government put into force stringent regula- 
tions for the suppression and final prohibition of 
opium. Large numbers of students were sent 
abroad to be educated, especially to the United 
States. 

Steps toward Popular Government. By an im- 
perial decree of 1908 a constitutional form of gov- 
ernment was promised, to be put into effect in 
1917. Later on, in answer to frequent memorials, 
the date of its adoption was brought down to 191 3. 
During the revolution, before the abdication, the 
throne agreed to the immediate assembling of a 



Review of China's International Relations 2J 

Parliament with legislative authority, but the offer 
came too late. Advisory Provincial Assemblies 
were opened in 1909, and the first National Assem- 
bly was held in Peking in 1910. Each city was 
allowed to elect a Municipal Council to act as an 
advisory body to the magistrate and to relieve him 
of some of his duties. 

Effects of War between Russia and Japan. 
Nothing stimulated the reform movement more 
than the war between Russia and Japan. The Chi- 
nese were chagrined by the fact that they were on- 
lookers in a contest for the possession of territory 
belonging to the empire, and that it was fought out 
contrary to the regulations of international law on 
neutral soil. They were also astounded by the 
prowess displayed by Japan, and realized as never 
before that the yellow man was a match for the 
white man in warfare. They were convinced that 
Japan, in learning from the West, had adopted the 
right policy and they became eager to imitate her 
in this respect. 

Influence of Japan. The influence of Japan has 
been incalculable. For a time the Chinese looked 
upon Tokyo as a Mecca, and thousands of students 
went there for education. At one time the num- 
ber reached 15,000. Most of these young men be- 
came inoculated with radicalism in the extreme 
form. The reform leaders in China who were fugi- 
tives from their own country seized the opportunity 
of influencing their minds, and men like Dr. Sun 
Yat-sen carried on an active propaganda among 



28 The Emergency in China 

them. Thus, the Chinese student class in Japan 
became a hotbed of sedition, and returned to 
China with a firm determination to drive out the 
Manchus and to establish a republican form of gov- 
ernment. Throughout the length and breadth of 
China, returned students from Japan founded secret 
societies for the carrying out of their program and 
for the spread of revolutionary ideas. 

Effect of Western Impact. Owing to the steady 
impact of the West upon the East, there has been 
born a national consciousness, previously non-ex- 
istent. China for the Chinese has become the 
great ideal which powerfully stirs the hearts of the 
masses in China. 

Conservatism of Manchus. Notwithstanding the 
fact that the Manchus seemed to be in favor of a 
progressive policy, yet in reality they were very 
fearful of the movement for modernizing China. 
They yielded only reluctantly to the demands of 
the people for a representative government, and 
some of them foresaw the inevitable result — the 
overthrow of the dynasty. 

Deaths of Emperor and Empress Dowager. The 
sudden death of the Emperor Kuang Hsu, a few 
days before the Empress Dowager breathed her 
last, has given rise to many surmises. It is thought 
by some that the masterful woman, knowing that 
her own end was near, made sure that her nephew 
should first depart this life, and that the imperial 
power should never revert to his hands. 

Inefficiency of Prince Regent, The succession of 



Review of China's International Relations 29 

the infant Hsuan-Tung was most unfortunate, for 
although the Prince Regent was well-meaning, yet 
he proved utterly incapable of filling the difficult 
position in which he was placed, and the imperial 
court was rent with factions. More and more the 
Chinese became convinced that the weakness and 
decline of China were attributable to the inefficiency 
of the Manchu government, and the determination 
to get rid of it increased in strength. 

Mistakes of Manchu Government. We may 
summarize the mistakes of the Manchus as fol- 
lows: 1. They never completely identified them- 
selves with the Chinese, but continued to rule them 
as a conquered people ; 2. They were always secret- 
ly opposed to progress and only consented to re- 
forms as the result of pressure; 3. By their selfish- 
ness, corruption, and disregard for the welfare of 
the people they lost the confidence and respect of 
the body of the nation. 

Four Nations Loan and Nationalization of Rail- 
roads. Among the causes which precipitated the 
national uprising were the Four Nations Loan x and 
the Nationalization of the Railroads. The former 
was unpopular because the Chinese feared that the 
nations which advanced the money would obtain 
internal control over the affairs of the country. The 
latter met with disfavor because they looked upon 

1 The Four Nations Loan has now become the Five Nations 
Loan. Originally the loan was to be financed by British, 
German, French, and American capitalists. Later on Russian 
and Japanese capitalists were admitted into the group, and 
the United States withdrew. 



30 The Emergency in China 

it as a breach of faith on the part of the govern- 
ment as it necessitated the rescinding of conces- 
sions to private companies, and because they sus- 
pected that the real reason for the government 
wishing to obtain control of the railways was to 
use them for military purposes in keeping the peo- 
ple in subjection. Another reason for the unpopu- 
larity of the proposal was the spirit of provincial- 
ism. Each province was desirous of constructing 
its own railroads and of making out of them what- 
ever profit there might be. 

Success of the Revolution. In the face of the 
uprising at Wuchang and in the Province of Sze- 
chwan, the Manchu government showed its weak- 
ness. The success of the revolutionists encouraged 
the patriotic party all over the country. In a short 
time all the southern provinces revolted and many 
of those in the north followed their example. The 
central government was paralyzed and the one 
strong man of China, Yuan Shih-kai, was recalled 
from retirement in the hope that he might cope 
with the situation. After some attempts to carry 
out the imperial will, realizing the hopelessness of 
endeavoring to keep the Manchus on the throne, 
he urged them to abdicate, and came over to the 
side of the republican party. In the uprising there 
was much that was similar to the French Revolu- 
tion, but on the whole it was carried out with much 
less bloodshed. The student class, who were un- 
doubtedly the instigators and prime movers of 
the revolution, have been successful far beyond 



Review of China's International Relations 31 

expectation, and China has become a republic as 
the result of the upheaval. 

New Chapter in China's History. This great 
people now enter on a new chapter in their his- 
tory, and a most critical one. The sleeping giant 
has been aroused and has felt his strength. The 
supreme question is what will he do with it? Will 
it be for the weal or wo of mankind? If the giant 
be a godless and soulless giant, he will be a menace 
to the future civilization of the world. This is the 
real yellow peril. 

Call for Christian Altruism. In this chapter we 
have laid emphasis upon the attitude of China to- 
ward the rest of the world. It might appear as if 
our object had been to whitewash the West and 
lay all the blame for the misunderstandings and 
conflicts upon the proud and ignorant East. This 
would be manifestly unjust. Indeed it is hard to 
defend from an ethical point of view much of the 
treatment meted out to China by Western nations. 
It is doubtful how far in the first instance we were 
justified in compelling China to enter into commer- 
cial and diplomatic relations with the rest of the 
world. Our policy has been largely that of su- 
perior power, actuated by the principle that force 
makes right. It has been the aggression of the 
strong upon the weak, and there is much in the 
story which is sordid and unchristian, and much 
of which we cannot feel proud. The result as we 
know has been that the door has been forced open, 
and the question arises to what purpose? Is it 



$2 The Emergency in China 

merely for our own advantage? Is China to be 
exploited in the interest of Western nations with 
a land-grabbing tendency? Are her resources to 
be developed merely for our own benefit? Is she 
to derive good or evil from the impact of the 
West? We have helped to create the present sit- 
uation, and it is our duty to see that we give of 
our best to China. Christianity stands for altru- 
ism. Modern diplomacy and commerce are too 
often actuated by the spirit of selfishness. Which 
principle shall be paramount in our future deal- 
ings with China? 

IMPORTANT QUOTATIONS 

The extracts at the close of each chapter are intended to 
indicate various view-points, mainly those of recent articles and 
addresses. The author of the text-book is in no way responsi- 
ble for them, and they do not necessarily represent the opin- 
ions of the editors. 

When we study China's intercourse with the modern powers, 
as recorded in the nineteenth century, we find that it has not 
been a happy one. Portions of her territory and some of her 
most valuable ports have been lost. Important places like 
Shanghai, Hankow, Tientsin, Kiaochow, Macao, and Man- 
churia are more or less under foreign control. China has 
also to pay enormous indemnities to European countries, out 
of all reasonable or just proportion to the alleged injuries 
inflicted. From her painful past experience in international 
dealings, China has come to the only conclusion possible to 
deduct from the scandalous wrongs inflicted upon her, — that 
the great powers are seeking to get all they can from her, 
and she also realizes perfectly well now that the fact of these 
nations being civilized and so-called Christian does not insure 
either right or just treatment. 

— Cheng Chang-lu, in the World's Chinese Students' Jour- 
nal, September, 191 1. 

There are many who place the most implicit confidence in 
international law, but these are as stupid as the individuals 



Review of China's International Relations 33, 

who depend on the Disarmament Society for peace. If coun- 
tries are equally matched, then international law is enforced; 
otherwise, the law is inoperative. . . . We have never heard of 
international law controlling the issues of war between unequal 
states. . . . China is not on an equal footing with the West. 
This is perceived in the fact that the duty on imports is 
fixed by Western governments. Not so in China. Merchants 
engaged in business abroad are subject to the laws of the 
country in which they reside. Not so in China. Foreign 
commerce is confined to seaports in the West. Not so in 
China. The murder of a foreigner by a Chinese is a very 
serious matter, but the killing of a "Chinaman" by a foreigner 
is a trivial thing. 
— Chang Chih-tung, in China's Only Hope, written in 1898. 

There is one department in which uniform taxation exists 
for all China, namely, in the Imperial Maritime Customs 
Service. On all goods coming in by sea, the customs, or 
tariff duties, are the same for all China. But how are they 
collected? By the organization established and carried on 
for many years by Sir Robert Hart, an admirable organization,, 
the service perfectly performed with honesty and accuracy, and 
the receipts applied exactly where they should be applied in 
accordance with existing treaties. But what is the applica- 
tion? To pay the interest on bonds which represent debt 
China was forced by Western powers to incur, in order to pay 
indemnities to Western powers, and to _ pay the Western 
powers the war expenses of those powers in carrying on war 
against China. No Chinese official to-day, or at any time 
within a generation in China, can bear to think of this uniform 
tax for all China, the customs. When I spoke to three of the 
members of the present government about this tax, my refer- 
ence to it was received with visible impatience and dislike. 
They simply hate to think they have mortgaged their entire 
customs revenue to pay the interest on debts and reduce the 
principals of debts which China incurred in consequence of 
wars which Western powers waged against her. . . . 

— President Charles W. Eliot, in the Journal of Race 
Development, January, 1913. 

"Compensation" and "indemnity" are two words the # Chinese 
have learned to hate, and some day they may build an immense 
navy and equip a large army to interpret these words in the 
way the Occidental interprets them, when they are synonymous 
with injustice and "grab." . . . 

— John Stewart Thomson, in the Journal of Race Develop- 
ment, January, 1913. 



34 The Emergency in China 

They can tolerate anything and everything but further 
grabbing of their land. Therefore, by permitting or coun- 
tenancing these powers to take an unfair advantage to slice 
territory from China, the civilized nations might drive the 
Chinese to revenge in such a way as to turn what is soon to 
become a great "hive of commerce" and prosperity into a 
cursed land of carnage and "Boxerism," as well as to en- 
danger the peace of the world and paralyze the advancement 
of mankind ; while, by the exertion of a due amount of effort 
to maintain international justice to China during this period, 
they may enable the Chinese people soon to be able to take 
care of themselves and to contribute a great share to the 
promoting of honorable peace among nations, as well as to 
the advancement of general human happiness. 

— Ching Chun- wang, Ph. D., Assistant-Director of the 
Peking-Mukden Railway, in the Journal of Race Development, 
January, 1913. 

The evils of Western civilization have already found their 
way into the East. The pagan elements that still linger in 
our Western, nominally Christian, civilization we have forced 
upon them. Our military spirit, our rudeness of manner, our 
contemptuous disregard of the rights and feelings of others 
who are less aggressive, our habits of intemperance — by these 
the Western nations are already well known in the East, and 
there is no prospect that we can at once abate their evil in- 
fluence. The open question is whether we shall, with our 
worst, give our best ; by the gift of our best atone for the evil 
we have done in sending our worst, and at length displace the 
evil with the good. 

— Ernest D. Burton, in the World's Chinese Students' 
Journal, September, 191 1. 



RESULTS OF THE RECENT REVOLUTION 



CHAPTER II 

RESULTS OF THE RECENT REVOLUTION 

The one thing certain is that whatsoever nation en- 
ters on the path of revolution in our own day it will 
be heir to all our forefathers have done in France, 
The blood they shed was shed for humanity; the suf- 
ferings they endured were borne for the entire hu- 
man race; their struggles, the ideas they gave to the 
world, the shock of those ideas, are all included in 
the heritage of mankind. All have borne fruit and 
will bear more, still finer as we advance toward these 
wide horizons opening out before us, where, like some 
great beacon to point the way, flame the words: Lib- 
erty, Equality, Fraternity. 

— P. A. Kropotkin 

Quick Result of Long Preparation. The revolu- 
tion of China was accomplished in the remarkably 
short period of four months. When a sudden cata- 
clysm occurs in nature, we know that secret forces 
have been at work for a long time, and so it is with 
political upheavals. The outbreak was bound to 
come sooner or later, and the fact that it took us 
by surprise only shows that we were ignorant of 
what was transpiring. On the surface all appeared 
calm and quiet, but revolutionary ideas had been 

37 



38 The Emergency in China 

working for a long time in the minds of the more 
intelligent part of the population. 

Time of Outbreak. As is well known, the revolu- 
tion broke out on October 9, 191 1, before the ap- 
pointed date. This was due to the fact that, by an 
accidental explosion, a secret bomb factory was 
discovered in the Russian settlement in Hankow. 
Papers implicating the revolutionists were found, 
and in order to save their heads they were com- 
pelled to act quickly, and to start the rebellion be- 
fore their plans had been perfected. They were 
successful beyond anticipation, and found them- 
selves supported by public opinion. Very for- 
tunately, they were able to induce General Li Yuan- 
hung, much against his own will, to accept the 
position of leader. He soon proved himself entirely 
worthy of their selection, and showed himself to be 
the man of the hour. 

First Undecisive Movements. Owing to pro- 
crastination and indecision the court at Peking per- 
mitted the rebellion to assume formidable propor- 
tions before attempting to quell it. When the 
troops from the North really began their operations, 
it soon became apparent that the revolutionary 
forces, largely composed of raw volunteers, were 
no match for the army which had been trained by 
Yuan Shih-kai. Although they fought bravely and 
were inspired by true patriotism, yet, as is usually 
the case, discipline and better equipment proved 
superior on the battle-field. In the latter part 
of October Hankow was recaptured by the im- 



Results of Revolution 39 

perialists under General Yin Chang, and destroyed 
by incendiary fires. The burning of this immense 
city was one of the most tragic events of the revolu- 
tion. With the fall of Hanyang, it looked as if the 
revolution would be crushed, for it would have 
been an easy matter for the imperialists to have 
driven General Li and his forces out of Wuchang. 

Spread of Revolution. In the meantime, how- 
ever, the revolution had spread all over the country, 
and city after city went over, for the most part with- 
out serious resistance, to the side of those who were 
bent on the overthrow of the Manchus. Fourteen 
out of the eighteen provinces declared themselves 
in favor of the establishment of a republican form 
of government. As an offset to the fall of Hanyang, 
Nanking after some serious fighting was taken by 
the army of the revolution, and was made the 
capital of the new government. 

Reappearance of Dr. Sun Yat-sen. At the 
psychological moment, the great reformer, Dr. Sun 
Yat-sen, arrived in China and was inaugurated on 
January 1, 1912, as the first President of the pro- 
visional government of the new republic. The man 
who had spent his life in plotting for the liberation 
of his country from the rule of the Manchus, who 
had been exiled with a great price on his head, and 
who had undergone innumerable hardships and 
dangers, appeared on the scene to see the success 
of his lifelong endeavors. The most hated enemy 
of the Manchu dynasty came back to triumph over* 
Its downfall. 



40 The Emergency in China 

Sketch of His Career. The story of Dr. Sun Yat- 
sen reads like a romance. He began his career as 
a medical student at Hongkong in the College of 
Medicine. Dr. Cantlie, the Dean from 1889 to 
1896, was much impressed by him, and in the 
biography recently written speaks of him as "a 
nature that draws men's regards towards him and 
makes them ready to serve him at the operating 
table or on the battle-field; an unexplainable in- 
fluence, a magnetism which prevails and finds its 
expression in attracting men to his side/' He be- 
came the founder of the Ko Ming Tang (Revolu- 
tionary Society), and, after an unsuccessful at- 
tempt at revolution in Canton, was forced to flee 
the country. While in England he was kidnaped 
by the Chinese officials and locked up in their Le- 
gation. Through the efforts of his friend Dr. Cant- 
lie he regained his liberty and then traveled about 
from place to place gathering funds from his coun- 
trymen scattered over the world and laying plots 
for the revolution. His undoubted courage, mod- 
esty, patriotism, sincerity, and intelligence have 
made him trusted and looked up to by all his com- 
patriots who were hoping for a better day for their 
country. What greater contrast could there be 
than Dr. Sun, the arch-conspirator, and Dr. Sun, 
the ex-provisional President entertained at Peking 
by Prince P'u Lun, at a feast at the palace of one 
of the Manchu high officials? 

Yuan Shih-kai. The Manchu government was 
obliged to recall Yuan Shih-kai, who had been liv- 




SUN YAT SEN 



[p-iOj 



Results of Revolution 41 

ing in retirement for some time, as the only man 
strong enough to cope with the rebellion. Complete 
power was vested in his hands, and for a time he 
attempted to bolster up the tottering dynasty. His 
greatest difficulty was lack of funds, for he found it 
impossible after all the foreign powers had declared 
their neutrality to raise a loan for the support of 
the northern army. He was sagacious enough to 
see that he was dealing with a revolutionary move- 
ment which could not be suppressed by mere force. 
As supreme commander of the northern army, and 
as absolute dictator at the court, he might have 
plunged China into a civil war which would have 
meant years of bloodshed, and which might have 
resulted in a split between the North and the South, 
and in all probability in the intervention of foreign 
powers to safeguard their commercial interests. It 
is greatly to his credit, that he did not adopt such 
a course of action. It was due to him that the 
advantages gained by the imperialist forces at 
Hankow were not pressed, and that the troops were 
withdrawn. He probably felt that the burning of 
Hankow by the imperialist army had been a terrible 
mistake, and had only increased the animosity in 
the minds of the Chinese against the old regime. 

Peace Negotiations. Seeing that the only hope 
of peace for his distracted country lay in compro- 
mise, he consented to enter into negotiations with 
the revolutionary government. Tang Shao-yi was 
sent as his representative to Shanghai to meet Dr. 
Wu Ting- fang, and on December 18, 191 1, the peace 



42 The Emergency in China 

conference began. After long consultation, and in 
spite of great reluctance on the part of Yuan Shih- 
kai, the chief demands of the republican party were 
conceded. 

Election of Yuan Shih-kai as President. In order 
to cement the North and the South more firmly to- 
gether, President Sun Yat-sen decided to retire 
from office in favor of Yuan Shih-kai, who was duly 
elected by the National Assembly in session at 
Nanking. Probably at the suggestion of Yuan 
Shih-kai, the Manchu dynasty finally decided to 
abdicate, and favorable conditions as to pensions y 
dignities, and titles were guaranteed to the imperial 
house. The following is the text of one of the edicts 
issued by the Empress Dowager: 

Edict of Abdication. ''To-day the people of the 
whole Empire have their minds bent upon a Re- 
public, the southern provinces having initiated the 
movement, and the northern generals having sub- 
sequently supported it. The will of Providence is 
clear, and the people's wishes are plain. How could 
I, for the sake of the glory and the honor of one 
family, oppose the wishes of teeming millions? 
Wherefore I, with the Emperor, decide that the form 
of government in China shall be a Constitutional 
Republic, to comfort the longing of all within the 
Empire and to act in harmony with the ancient 
sages, who regarded the throne as a public 
heritage." 

Presidential Oath. Yuan was prevented from 
coming to Nanking for his inauguration, owing to a 



Results of Revolution 43 

mutiny among the troops in Peking, and the 
oath of office was taken in the old capital. Ac- 
cordingly on March 10, 1912, he took the follow^- 
ing oath : "Since the Republic has been established, 
many works have now to be performed. I shall 
endeavor faithfully to develop the Republic, to 
sweep away the disadvantages attached to absolute 
monarchy, to observe the laws of the Constitution, 
to increase the welfare of the country, to cement 
together a strong nation which shall embrace all 
five races. When the National Assembly elects a 
permanent President, I shall retire. This I swear 
before the Chinese Republic." 

Coalition Cabinet. One of President Yuan's first 
duties was the appointment of his cabinet, and thus 
what is known as the Coalition Cabinet came into 
existence. His idea was to appoint men both from 
the North and the South so as to do away with the 
rivalry between these two sections of the country. 
Tang Shao-yi was made Premier. It was found im- 
possible to establish the capital in Nanking, and it 
was decided to keep the seat of government in 
Peking, the members of the National Assembly re- 
moving from the South to the North. 

Lack of Funds and Mutiny of Soldiers. Since 
the establishment of the republic, one of the gravest 
sources of danger has been in connection with 
mutiny and disorder among the troops, due to ar- 
rears in their pay. The new government is con- 
fronted with a most serious financial situation. The 
revolution has been a costly one, and the finances 



44 The Emergency in China 

of the country have been so greatly disturbed that 
it has been impossible to pay off and disband the 
troops. The long program of reform promised by 
the new government cannot be undertaken until 
large sums of money have been secured. China's 
liabilities in the way of paying annual instalments 
on indemnities and the expenses of the government 
were in excess of the amount of revenue raised 
from taxation, and it became necessary for her to 
raise a large foreign loan. 

Five Nations Loan. Negotiations were entered 
into for raising the Six Nations loan. For a long 
time there was a deadlock owing to the fact that 
China was unwilling to submit to foreign super- 
vision in regard to the use made of the money 
borrowed. Naturally great fear was felt of adopt- 
ing a policy which appeared similar to the Egyp- 
tianizing of the country. She has been compelled 
to submit to a certain amount of supervision owing 
to the urgent need of funds. The unpopularity of 
the Four Nations Loan was one of the causes lead- 
ing to the revolution, and it is certainly strange 
that among the early acts of the new government 
was the securing of a loan from the five nations of 
larger proportions than the one formerly contem- 
plated. Of course, it was unpopular and may lead 
to trouble in the future, but the necessity was so 
urgent that no other line of action seemed possible. 

Final Arrangements. The negotiations were pro- 
tracted for a very long time. They have been 
broken off and resumed several times. The raising 



Results of Revolution 45 

of a loan known as the Crisp Loan only helped to 
complicate matters. Finally a contract was signed 
by the representatives of the five nations, and 
by the Premier and the Ministers of the Board 
of Foreign Affairs and the Ministry of Finance. 
The amount of the loan was $125,000,000. The 
funds were to be used for seven purposes: 1. The 
liabilities of the Chinese government; 2. The re- 
demption of outstanding provincial loans; 3. The 
payment of losses arising from the Revolution ; 
4. The disbandment of troops ; 5. The redemption of 
other specified provincial liabilities ; 6. The current 
expenses ; 7. The reorganization of the Salt Admin- 
istration. 1 China undertook to establish a Loan 
Department, an Audit Department, and a Salt In- 
spectorate, in which three foreign advisers were to 
be employed. The provisional government has been 
established, and on the eighth day of April, -1913, 
the National Convention assembled. Then steps 
were taken to adopt the new Constitution and to 
choose the President of the republic. In the mean- 
time there was much debate as to whether the new 
government would prove a success. 

Outer Mongolia and Russia. On New-year's 
day, 1912, came the announcement that the head 
of the Buddhist hierarchy in Outer Mongolia had 
declared the independence of the country, and an- 
nounced himself as autocratic ruler. Shortly after- 

1 The security of the loan is the salt gabelle, or impost on 
salt in transition, salt always having been a government 
monopoly in China. 



46 



The Emergency in China 



wards the Russian government advised China that 
she must respect this declaration and, while still 
exercising suzerainty over Mongolia, must abstain 
from sending troops or colonists into the country. 
On April 9, 1912, Mongolia definitely refused Presi- 
dent Yuan Shih-kai's invitation to join the republic. 




On November 3 of the same year, at Urga, a 
special Russian envoy signed with the Mongolian 
princes a Russo-Mongolian Convention. The agree- 
ment extends the amplest privileges to Russian 
traders, forbids China to interfere in any way with 
the administration of Mongolia or to send troops 
or colonists into her territory, allows Mongolia to 
contract treaties with other countries, subject to 



Results of Revolution 47 

Russia's approval, and permits China to retain 
suzerainty of Mongolia, provided she first recog- 
nizes the Convention. The Urga Convention has 
raised a great outcry in China. Many see in it 
the deliberate attempt on the part of Russia to 
gain complete control in Mongolia, and clamor for 
war. This is one of the black clouds which has 
gathered since the inception of the republic, and 
apparently the beginning of the new regime is not 
to be free from national humiliations which will 
sorely try the hearts of all sincere patriots. 

Eastern Inner Mongolian Unrest. Eastern Inner 
Mongolia has been in a turmoil as well as Outer 
Mongolia. This portion of the country has also 
attempted to assert its independence of China. 
After some fighting between the Chinese army and 
Mongolian raiders, a conference was held at Chang- 
chun, on October 25, 1912, and China extended 
the olive branch, promising various reforms and 
privileges. Whether Eastern Inner Mongolia will 
follow the example set by Outer Mongolia at Urga 
time alone can show. 

War in Tibet. With the outbreak of the revolu- 
tion, Tibet saw her opportunity to throw off the 
Chinese yoke. Under the old regime the mis- 
government was characterized by such cruelty and 
injustice that Chinese rule had become exceedingly 
unpopular. The Chinese garrisons were besieged, 
and compelled to retire from the country. In June, 
1912, the Chinese gathered a force to subdue the 
country and 10,000 men were dispatched on an 



48 The Emergency in China 

expedition into eastern Tibet. A strenuous re- 
sistance has been made to their advance, and the 
attempt thus far has proved a failure. 

Embarrassing Complications. On August 17, 
1912, the British government presented in Peking 
a memorandum, protesting against Chinese hostili- 
ties as a violation of the Anglo-Chinese Treaty of 
1906, and calling on China to respect the status quo 
as Great Britain was doing. The Chinese replied to 
this note after a considerable lapse of time, pointing 
out that from the Chinese point of view Tibet was 
a portion of the Chinese Empire and hence natur- 
ally belongs to the Republic, and that she claims 
a right to maintain her sovereignty over it. The 
Tibetans have declared their independence under 
the rule of the Dalai Lama and have already entered 
into a treaty with Outer Mongolia, whereby both 
countries agree to become allies. It is most un- 
fortunate that the new republic should be called 
upon to enter on a course of hostilities against these 
outlying dependencies, especially at a time when 
her finances are strained, and she has so many in- 
ternal problems to solve. 

Russian and Japanese Hold on Manchuria. Af- 
fairs in Manchuria remain in a very unsatisfactory 
condition. Although China retains her sovereignty, 
Russia and Japan continue to strengthen their hold 
on the country. These two nations have entered 
into an agreement by which their claims have been 
adjusted, and by which each can go on with its 
policy of aggrandizement at the expense of China. 



Results of Revolution 49 

The possibility of an alliance between China and 
Japan seems very remote, and the Chinese begin 
to look upon Japan as their most dreaded enemy. 
One of the results of the admission of Russia and 
Japan into the Five Nations group controlling the 
loan is that China will be unable to use any of 
the money for strengthening her position in Man- 
churia, or of doing anything that might appear to 
threaten Russian and Japanese influence in that 
quarter. 

Prevalence of Disorder. During the trying and 
critical period of transition it is not surprising that 
there has been a good deal of lawlessness and dis- 
order throughout the country. Robber bands have 
seized the opportunity to plunder and loot. In 
addition there have been attempts on the part of 
those who were discontented w T ith the new regime 
to overthrow it and set up a government for them- 
selves. One of the most serious storm centers has 
been in Wuchang. Two officers of high standing, 
Huang Hui and Chang Chin-wu, entered into a plot 
against the Vice-President, General Li. The Presi- 
dent, Yuan Shih-kai, invited them to Peking, and 
then had them arrested and summarily shot. By 
his firmness, a serious outbreak was averted. 

Political Parties. In some places it has been 
necessary to institute a reign of military despotism. 
Among the revolutionists there have been serious 
factions and a great lack of unity. The two prin- 
cipal political parties are the Kuo Ming Tang or 
the radicals, and the Kung Ho Tang or the con- 



50 The Emergency in China 

servatives. At first the members of the Tung 
Meng Hui 1 tried to dominate everything, and at 
Peking blocked all legislation of which they did 
not approve. They were brought to their senses 
when the military governors of the provinces tele- 
graphed to them, threatening that if they did not 
behave themselves force would be used. 

Foreign Advisers, The new government has 
recognized the necessity of securing the best ex- 
pert advice on the many problems by which they 
are confronted. The President, Yuan Shih-kai, 
secured the appointment of Dr. G. E. Morrison, 
formerly Peking correspondent of the London 
Times, as Political Adviser. The choice was a wise 
one, and will probably prove of great benefit to 
China. Professor Frank J. Goodnow, of Columbia 
University, New York City, has been appointed 
Expert Legal Adviser for framing the new Con- 
stitution, because of his intimate knowledge of the 
Constitution of the United States and that of 
France. 

Constructive Work. The National Council im- 
mediately after the revolution was busy with 
various measures. A Provisional Constitution was 
drawn up, a Penal Code promulgated, the Gregorian 
calendar adopted, and the Parliament Regulation 
Bill and the Franchise Bill passed. 

Progress and Retrogression. The primary elec- 
tions began to be held early in December, 191 1, and 

1 A party which has since been absorbed into the Kuo 
Ming Tang. 



Results of Revolution 51 

Parliament was convened early in the spring of 
1912. During the last part of its tenure of office 
the National Council did not have much heart for 
its work, and the executive business of the govern- 
ment proceeded without its assistance. The Presi- 
dent was obliged to rule more like a dictator than 
like the chief executive of a democracy. 

An Auspicious Year. China was blessed with 
bounteous harvests during the first year of the new 
regime, and this has been conducive to the preser- 
vation of peace among the people. On October 10, 
1912, the anniversary of the founding of the re- 
public was held throughout China, and from the 
general rejoicing it was evident that the better 
educated classes were in entire sympathy with the 
ideals of the new government. 

Arguments against Establishment of a Republic. 
Some are quite pessimistic, and believe that it will 
be impossible for the Chinese to organize an effi- 
cient and stable republic. They are of opinion that 
a great mistake has been made and that it would 
have been far better if China had been content to 
establish a constitutional monarchy. They advance 
the following arguments to show that a republic is 
impracticable : 

Size of Country and Population. 1. China proper 
lias an area of 1,532,420 English square miles, and 
it has a population about four times as great as that 
of the United States. The transportation facilities 
are not as good as obtained in the United States 
and Canada in the days of the canal and stage- 



52 The Emergency in China 

coach period. "The party machine operating under 
such disadvantages would break with its own 
weight. There could be no intelligent expression 
of public opinion. Not only in political affairs, but 
in every other field, it is impossible to develop an 
alert, quick-changing public opinion in a nation of 
over four hundred millions when medieval means 
of communication are supplemented only by a few 
thousand miles of railroad and telegraph. China 
cannot become a popular republic without an im- 
proved system of communication." 1 

Lack of General Education. 2. There is the lack 
of general education. The masses of the people 
are not intelligent enough for self-government. It 
will be a long time before China's educational 
system will be completely modernized and some 
generations must pass before enlightenment will 
be disseminated among the peasants. The struggle 
for existence is so severe that the poor have little 
leisure for education. China cannot afford to estab- 
lish a national system of education which will pro- 
vide schools for all her children. Compulsory edu- 
cation will not be possible, owing to the heavy ex- 
penditure it involves, and owing also to. r fche fact 
that the children of the lower classes must be- 
come wage-earners at a very early period in their 
lives. 

Poverty of China, 3. China is in reality a poor 

1 Professor Chester Lloyd Jones, "Republican Government in 
China," The Annals of the American Academy of Political 
and Social Science, January, 1912, p. 33. 



Results of Revolution 53 

country, and will remain such until her tremendous 
economic resources are unlocked and wealth is more 
widely distributed so that the majority may possess 
more than the minimum of subsistence. Popular 
governments are expensive governments. Elec- 
tions cost money and it is extremely doubtful 
whether China at present could bear the necessary 
expenses connected with them. In all probability 
the affairs of the government would soon fall into 
the hands of an oligarchy who could manipulate 
them according to their own w r ishes. Dr. Arthur H. 
Smith says, "They may have something which they 
call a republic and which may ultimately develop 
into such. The intermediate Stages must be those 
of an oligarchy under republican form and titles. " 1 

Size of Electorate. 4. The enormous size of an 
illiterate electorate would lead to corruption far 
beyond anything with which we are familiar in the 
West 

Loose Federation. 5. The country never has 
been closely knit together. Each province has been 
more or less an independent entity. The policy of 
centralization favored by the late Manchu dynasty 
has not been popular, and it is extremely doubtful 
now whether the Chinese will favor a close federa- 
tion. There is sectional jealousy and much bitter 
feeling between the people of the different 
provinces. The line of cleavage between the North 
and South is clearly defined. The clan spirit still 
prevails, and until a stronger national spirit has 
1 Chinese Recorder, January, 1913, p. 10. 



54 The Emergency in China 

been evolved a republican form of government will 
prove impracticable. 
Arguments for the Establishment of a Republic. 

On the other hand, many are extremely optimistic 
and feel sure that in the end the wonderful experi- 
ment now being tried will turn out a success. They 
base their belief on the following considerations: 

Democracy of China. I. A democratic form of 
government is not a novelty in China. Mr. H. B. 
Morse describes the old government of China as 
"an autocratic rule superimposed on a democracy." 
The Chinese have always exercised a large amount 
of local self-government. "American government 
stands firmly on the town meeting. This was 
generally true in DeTocqueville's time (except for 
the county system of the Southern States), was 
passably true at the time of Bryce's inquiry, and 
is true to-day of the country village communities. 
It is also relatively true of village communities in 
China to-day, following the precedent of many cen- 
turies. The village elder or Tipao is appointed 
'with and by the advice and consent' of the 
villagers, and represents them in all official and 
governmental matters, being also the ordinary 
channel of communication of official wishes or 
orders to his fellow villagers. The American citizen 
has few direct dealings with any but his township 
officials, so long as he pays his taxes, and is law- 
abiding, and officially hardly knows of the existence 
of the federal government, unless he has to deal 
with the custom-house, or wishes to distil whisky. 



Results of Revolution 55 

This may be said also of the Chinese villager, and, 
moreover, few civil suits are brought before the 
official tribunals in China, while the government 
exercises no control over distillation." 1 

Absence of Hereditary Aristocracy. 2. China 
has no hereditary aristocracy. She passed out of 
the feudal system many centuries ago. The only 
class which has enjoyed exceptional privileges was 
the literati, but its ranks have been constantly re- 
enforced by those of humble birth. In theory the 
highest office in the government is open to those of 
lowly origin. The avenue to advancement lay 
through scholarship. The son of the farmer was 
eligible to compete in the civil service examinations 
and if successful might expect to rise step by step 
until he became prime minister. Many stories are 
told of the wonderful achievements of poor peasant 
lads in the way of obtaining high official positions. 

China Always Ruled by Will of People. 3. China 
has always been ruled by the voice of the people 
far more than is generally supposed. There have 
been no representative assemblies in which their 
voice could become articulate, but nevertheless it 
has made itself heard. The officials have not dared 
to resist strong public opinion, and have been com- 
pelled over and over again to yield to the desire 
of the people. Strikes, mobs, and rebellions have 
been of frequent occurrence, and have generally 
been effective in getting unpopular governmental 

1 H. B. Morse, The Trade and Administration of the Chi- 
nese Empire, 46, 48. 



56 The Emergency in China 

measures modified or repealed. Even the emperor 
held his office by consent of the people. When 
he proved himself incapable or tyrannical, he was 
often deposed by a successful rebellion, and his 
losing his throne was regarded as a manifestation 
of Heaven's displeasure. Vox populi vox Dei is an 
idea quite consonant with the Chinese way of regard- 
ing government. 

New National Consciousness. 4. Furthermore 
two forces are now manifesting themselves which 
tend to weld the people together. These are the 
new national consciousness and the fear of foreign 
intervention. The former serves as a strong 
centripetal force in opposition to all centrifugal 
tendencies. It has been able to keep the country 
from disruption during the period of transition. 
"China for the Chinese" is a strong enough senti- 
ment to overcome sectional and factional jealousies. 
It has held the North and the South together during 
the revolution in spite of the fact that the relations 
between them were strained almost to the breaking 
point. 

Fear of Foreign Intervention. 5. The fear of 
foreign intervention is a constant nightmare in the 
minds of the Chinese. They know that if a stable 
government cannot be established, and that if in 
consequence the country is thrown into disorder, 
there is danger lest Western powers, as a pretext 
for interference, seize on the harm done to com- 
mercial interests and the destruction of foreign 
life and property, and they are anxious to suppress 




FIRST REPUBLICAN ASSEMBLY 
INTERIOR OF A LEGISLATIVE ASSEMBLY 



[p56] 



Results of Revolution 57 

all disturbances and to bring about as quickly as 
possible the reign of law and order. 

Precedent of the United States. The situation 
is most interesting, and we wonder what the future 
will bring forth. It would be foolish to prophesy. 
When the United States gained her independence 
there followed a period somewhat similar to that 
through which China is now passing. The con- 
flicting interests of the colonies and their loose 
federation seemed to make it impossible for them 
to become a strong united nation. Many predicted 
the speedy disintegration of the new republic, and 
looked forward to seeing the European powers step 
in and divide the spoils. The pessimists were 
doomed to disappointment, and the unexpected hap- 
pened. China confronts innumerable difficulties 
and obstacles, but she may be able to surmount 
them all, and to establish a stable constitutional 
form of government. 

Interest in Political Matters. When we come to 
consider the outcome of the recent revolution, there 
are certain results which stand out in bold relief. 
The first may be expressed by saying that Chinese 
society has become political. "Hitherto it has lived 
from generation to generation by custom, with no 
consciousness of political aims or purposes; nor 
has the government itself been influenced in its 
action by definite policies. Secure in its authority, 
it has selected its servants on the basis of examina- 
tion tests, reenforced by such favor as promising 
candidates might be able to obtain through bribes 



58 The Emergency in China 

of various kinds. Now all of a sudden, the political 
impulse is strongly awakening in the breast of the 
Chinese people. . . . The intellectual and re- 
sponsible among the Chinese people are feeling a 
deep need for a conscious expression of national 
policy, and for the use of careful reason and long- 
headed foresight, as well as calm firmness, in the 
management of their national affairs." x 

Demands of the People. This accounts for the 
demand for parliamentary government. The people 
were not satisfied to leave the administration in the 
hands of the officials. They argued that all efficient 
countries are provided with parliaments, and they 
pointed to Japan as an example of a country be- 
coming strong by creating such an institution. The 
Manchu government yielded reluctantly, and a de- 
cree was issued on September i, 1906, favoring the 
adoption of a constitution, and promising to permit 
the people to participate in the government. By 
a decree in September, 1907, the summoning of a 
National Consultative Assembly to be known as 
the Tsecheng Yuan was authorized. It was to be 
composed of delegates partly nominated by the 
government itself, and partly selected by the Pro- 
vincial Assemblies. Advisory Provincial Assem- 
blies began their sessions in 1909, and the first 
Tsecheng Yuan was opened in Peking in 1910. 

Real Constitutional Rule Sought. These edicts 
did not meet with a very enthusiastic reception on 

1 Paul S. Reinsch, Intellectual and Political Currents in the 
Far East, 225, 226, 



Results of Revolution 59 

the part of the intelligent portion of the people. 
They wished to see a sovereign parliament or- 
ganized, and looked upon the advisory bodies as 
an evasive method of giving them the shadow 
without the substance. The promise of the grant- 
ing of a constitution in 1917 and then in 1913 seemed 
to be indications that the Manchu government was 
attempting to put them off with fair promises and 
was not really in favor of the new policy. During 
the revolution the Manchu government granted all 
that had been asked for, but then it was too late, 
for the people felt that at last they were masters 
of the situation, and could carry out their own 
wishes. 

Parliamentary Government. The people have 
perhaps regarded the parliament as a panacea for 
all their ills. They forget that such an institution 
brings with it "new difficulties, party controversies, 
the introduction into political life of personal ambi- 
tions, although on a far higher plane than that of 
court intrigue. So the difficulties of China will not 
vanish by the creation of this organ. China will, 
indeed, have endowed herself with an instrument 
that may be used toward bettering her general 
condition. But the real work of reform must be 
done in the administration. There the confidence 
of the people must be won. The corrupt methods 
which have obtained in the past must give way to 
strict accountability, and to the maintenance of 
just and legal charges. ... If these institutions 
can be so adjusted that they will constitute the 



60 The Emergency in China 

expression of a true union between the govern- 
ment and the people, the solution of the other 
difficulties and problems will have been rendered 
far easier than it would have been in the hands 
of an administration working at cross-purposes with 
an independent public opinion." * 

Transfer of Power to Young Men. Another re- 
sult of the recent revolution is the shifting of the 
power from the hands of the old official class to 
those of the educated young men. Under the old 
government, for the most part, the highest political 
positions were divided up among a clique who ran 
the government. It was hard for an outsider to 
gain admission; in fact, the only method possible 
was by the expenditure of large sums of money. 
China was in reality ruled by an official oligarchy, 
and this oligarchy was utterly corrupt and rotten. 
At the present critical juncture, the educated young 
men have been brought into prominence. They 
have been the backbone of the revolution, and are 
playing an impQrtant part in the new provincial 
government. Time has shown that it was im- 
possible to convert the old officialdom, and that 
even those officials who adopted progressive 
measures lacked the integrity and knowledge to 
carry them out successfully. Frequently the re- 
forms which they advocated were merely superficial, 
and beneath the surface the same old evils con- 
tinued. Dr. Wu Ting-fang at a banquet of students 

1 Paul S. Reinsch, Political and Intellectual Currents in the 
Far East, 270. 



Results of Revolution 61 

held about a year and a half ago, before the out- 
break of the revolution, made the startling state- 
ment that there was no hope for China until the 
government was in the hands of enlightened young 
men such as he was addressing. He was thoroughly 
acquainted with the old officialdom, and he knew 
that a process of complete house-cleaning must be 
instituted before matters could be improved. 

Their Time of Testing. The young men of China 
are now on trial, and the eyes of all are riveted 
upon them. That they will make mistakes is only 
to be expected. Full of new ideas and theories, 
they lack experience in statecraft, and it will take 
some time before they can learn. They have put 
their hands to a task of great dimensions — nothing 
less than cleansing the Augean stables of political 
corruption in China. The question of supreme 
importance is, Will they prove themselves to be men 
of integrity and high character? Although the 
transfer of power and responsibility into the hands 
of young and inexperienced men is attended with 
many dangers, yet if they are incorrupt and public- 
spirited, we may well believe that a new day has 
dawned for China, and that the future of the new 
government is assured. 

Rapid Spread of Education. We may also expect, 
as the outcome of the revolution, a more rapid dis- 
semination of general enlightenment. Popular 
government can only be successfully carried on 
where the people are intelligent. The Chinese are 
fully aware of this, and as soon as the government 



62 The Emergency in China 

has been organized and the funds secured, we may- 
expect to see great activity in the spread of educa- 
tion. In a future chapter we speak of the educa- 
tional reform in China, and here we need only say 
that the revolution has given the new education 
a great impetus. The old education of China used 
for the most part the deductive method. The in- 
troduction of the scientific inductive method will 
work as marvelous a change as it did after its in- 
troduction into the West by Francis Bacon. 

Economic Development. Undoubtedly one of the 
great results will be economic development. The 
Chinese realize that the poverty of the country is 
one of the sources of its weakness. Under the 
former corrupt government but little was done in 
the way of utilizing the great natural resources of 
the country. Private capitalists had little oppor- 
tunity of investing their money. The government 
was anxious to retain a monopoly over all the mines 
and restricted private enterprise. Undoubtedly one 
of the causes of the revolution was the economic 
factor, the desire for a more equal distribution 
of wealth and the demand for a share in the de- 
velopment of the resources of the country. The 
people were bitterly opposed to the granting of 
concessions to foreign capitalists, and clamored 
to be allowed to build and control their own rail- 
roads, and to open and develop their own mines. 

Religious Liberty. The revolution has as one 
of its fruits the removal of all religious disabilities. 
President Yuan Shih-kai has been most explicit 



Results of Revolution 63 

in his statements on this subject. A meeting of 
more than 2,000 Christians was held in one of the 
churches in Peking on February 26, 1912, for the 
purpose of congratulating the country on the rapid 
change to a republican government, to welcome the 
new President, and to consider the question of 
religious liberty. Owing to pressure of business 
Yuan Shih-kai was unable to be present, but he 
sent as his representative H. E. Yen Hui-ching, 
who addressed the meeting and spoke as follows: 
Position of the Republic. "We can thank God 
that such a body of Christians of every denomina- 
tion in this city has met together to welcome the 
first President of the new republic and to rejoice 
in the comparatively bloodless outcome. I am 
directed by him to thank you and to tell you how 
much he would have enjoyed being here, but the 
demand of urgent affairs of state precluded his 
attendance. The Christian religion was brought 
to China from the West more than a hundred years 
ago. Until recently it has not proved successful in 
reaching the people. This may be accounted for 
by the fact that the people were ultra-conservative, 
and society in general was unaccustomed to new 
things, or that the message of the foreign mis- 
sionary was misunderstood and to a large extent 
a wrong interpretation was put on the Church, its 
object, and its functions. In the last few years, 
however, our educated men have zealously bent 
their minds to the study of Western education and 
have found out the intent and purport of the 



64 The Emergency in China 

Christian religion in its aspects of mercy and educa- 
tion. The result of this investigation has also been 
a clearer understanding of the character, genesis, 
and motive of the Church. Heretofore the treaties 
allowed the Chinese to accept Christianity, but now- 
such agreements will be put aside, for New China 
will grant religious liberty of its own accord to 
all its citizens without the treaties; and, on behalf 
of the President, I wish to say that certain clauses 
will be introduced into the new Constitution that 
will allow all the Chinese the freedom to worship 
in their own way/' 

A Further Declaration. Shortly after the revolu- 
tion, General Li Yuan-hung gave utterance to the 
following sentiment : "Missionaries are our friends. 
Jesus Christ is better than Confucius, and I am 
strongly in favor of more missionaries coming to 
China to teach Christianity and going into interior 
provinces. We shall do all we can to assist mis- 
sionaries, and the more missionaries we get to come 
to China, the greater will the republican govern- 
ment be pleased." 

Value of New Attitude. We of the West realize 
the importance of freedom of thought in religious 
matters, and know how closely it is connected with 
the progress of a country. The history of the 
inquisition in Spain furnishes us with an example 
of the disastrous effects of the policy of limiting 
religious liberty. While China has not been as 
intolerant as other countries in questions of re- 
ligion, yet undoubtedly Christians have suffered 



Results of Revolution 65 

certain disabilities, and it is good to think that these 
will now be removed. The attitude of Chinese 
officialdom toward Christianity in the past has not 
been friendly and they have made a distinction be- 
tween the "people" and the "Church people." We 
may now expect to see this harmful division dis- 
appear. 

Financial Reform. The new government 
promises many reforms, and we are filled with a 
sense of bewilderment when we Contemplate all 
the things that must be put right. If we are not 
mistaken, however, one of the first matters to be 
taken in hand is the question of finance. A uniform 
and standard system of currency must be intro- 
duced, and the taxes must be levied in such a way 
as to bring into the government an adequate 
revenue. Such matters will occupy the attention of 
the Tsecheng Yuan * for many months to come. 
Hamilton saw the necessity for putting the financial 
credit of the United States on a firm basis, and 
Americans owe him a great debt of gratitude for 
the wise financial measures which he introduced. 
China stands sorely in need of statesmen of similar 
spirit and ability in her days of constitution making. 

Outlying Dependencies. Another very serious 
problem during the time of reorganization arises 
in connection with her outlying dependencies — 
Tibet, Sinkiang, Mongolia, and Manchuria. The 
five colors of the new flag are explained as meaning 
that the five peoples are to be united firmly to- 

1 National Assembly. 



66 The Emergency in China 

gether in one republic, but the undertaking is one 
that bristles with difficulties. The civilization of 
Tibet, Sinkiang, and Mongolia is much lower than 
that of China proper, and it requires a great stretch 
of imagination to believe that the people of these 
territories are capable of taking part in a demo- 
cratic form of government. Chinese rule has never 
been popular in them. At the present time, as we 
have already stated, 1 there is a revolt in Tibet 
against the Chinese resident, and Mongolia has 
attempted to set up an independent government. 

Imperiled Situation of Manchuria. As regards 
Manchuria, Russia and Japan have obtained so 
firm a hold on it that it would appear impossible 
for China ever to regain full control. If lost to her, 
one of her richest possessions will have been taken 
away. It will require great wisdom to devise a 
way to include these vast dependencies in the new 
republic, and to bind them firmly to the central 
government. 

Attitude of Western Powers. The ultimate out- 
come of the revolution depends not only on China 
herself, but also upon the attitude of Western 
powers. Will foreign nations intervene, or will 
they allow China time to work out her own 
destiny? The temptation to exercise control will 
be strong. International ethics are as yet far from 
measuring up to the Christian standard. The loan 
negotiations show only too clearly that Western 
financiers can hardly be called disinterested friends. 

1 See pages 46, 47. 






Results of Revolution 67 

There is altogether too much indication that there 
is a strong inclination to take advantage of China's 
weakness. Something more is sought than mere 
security for the loan. The desire to exploit China 
is still a great factor in the situation. It may sound 
like an exaggeration, but we are of the opinion that 
certain nations would prefer to see China remain 
weak in order that their own selfish policies may be 
carried out successfully. 

Christian Policy of Non-interference. We would 
plead as strongly as we can for a policy of non- 
interference. We base our plea in the first place 
on the high grounds of Christianity. Here are a 
people awakening to national aspirations and strug- 
gling to improve their conditions. They are eager 
to win for China a place among the progressive 
nations of the world. "We who are strong should 
help to bear the infirmities of the weak." The West 
should seek to help in every way and should sym- 
pathize with the endeavors of the Chinese to build 
up a strong and stable government. If we are 
guided by a self-seeking policy and take advantage 
of China because she is powerless to resist our de- 
mands, we shall be acting In a way that gives the 
lie to the religion we profess. 

Danger to Be Avoided. But we may also base 
our appeal on grounds of expediency. We have 
come to one of the great turning-points in the 
world's history. The East and the West ha\ e come 
face to face, and have been brought into close con- 
tact, and the future civilization of the world de- 



68 The Emergency in China 

pends in no small degree upon the sort of relation- 
ship they will establish with one another. The 
career of Japan shows us the latent strength of 
Oriental peoples, and what it is possible for them 
to achieve by adopting elements of Western civiliza- 
tion. Asiatic nations have been inspired with new 
life and hope, and are eager to imitate the Island 
Empire. To conquer them now will be a different 
task from what it was formerly. If hostile relations 
with the East become the adopted policy of Western 
nations, the world may see wars more sanguinary 
and conflicts of larger dimensions than any that 
have taken place in the past. It is impossible to be- 
lieve that the East will ever finally submit to be 
governed by the West. More and more the East 
will demand to be treated on terms of equality and 
to be admitted into the family of nations. Ex- 
pediency dictates that we should enter into amicable 
relations with these nations and place no hindrance 
in the way of their natural development. If this 
policy is adopted, the future peace of the world 
may be secured. If not, a struggle too dreadful to 
contemplate may be the result. 

Christianity Essential. The future results of 
the revolution depend finally upon the spread of 
Christianity in China. A moral and spiritual refor- 
mation are the greatest needs of the people. China 
must become Christian before she can develop into 
a great republic. 



Results of Revolution 69 

IMPORTANT QUOTATIONS 

It cannot be too much considered that democracy as it now 
exists, if in one aspect the freest, is in another aspect the 
severest form of government; less than any other form does 
it permit the natural man to do as he likes; and a community 
composed of individuals who have no other ideal than doing 
as they like will not only refuse to be governed, but fail to 
produce men who are capable of governing. 

— L. P. Jacks, in the Hibbert Journal, October, 1912. 

The continued national existence of the Yellow Race may be 
regarded as assured. But that the empire which in the past 
fifty years has lost Siam, Burma, Assam, Tongking, part of 
Manchuria, Formosa, and Korea, which has already seen a 
foreign army in Peking . . . ; whose standard of civil and 
political perfection is summed up in the stationary idea ; which, 
after half a century of intercourse with ministers, missionaries, 
and merchants, regards all these as intolerable nuisances, and 
one of the number with peculiar aversion; which only adopts 
the lessons that they have taught her when the surrender is 
dictated by her necessities or her fears ; and which, after a 
twenty years' observation of the neighboring example of Japan, 
looks with increasing contempt upon a frailty so feeble and 
impetuous — that this empire is likely to falsify the whole course 
of its history and to wrench round the bent of its own deep- 
seated inclinations, simply because the shriek of the steam 
whistle or the roar of cannon is heard at its gates — is a 
hypothesis that ignores the accumulated lessons of political 
science and postulates a revival of the age of miracles. 
— Lord Curzon, Problems of the Far East (written in 1896). 

Young China, as at present constituted, will pass, the 
shadowy fabric of a restless dream. An inevitable reaction 
will restore the ancient ways, the vital Confucian morality, and 
that enduring social structure whose apex is the Dragon 
Throne. But Young China, at its passing, will not have been 
in vain. Something of the Utopia of its visions will remain, 
to renovate and modify that ancient structure. . . . 

But, despite China's disastrous experiences of the past fifty 
years, and the fore-doomed failure of her present political 
experiments, it is difficult for any student of her history and 
people to doubt that the splendid qualities and instinctive com- 
mon sense of the masses will assert themselves in time to 
avert the worst consequences of Young China's headlong icon- 
oclasm. Despite every fresh proof of inertia in the masses 
and incompetence in their self-constituted leaders, we are 



70 The Emergency in China 

impelled instinctively to hope against hope that, from out of 
all this trouble and turmoil of new forces, the ancient weather- 
beaten structure will presently emerge, modified and strength- 
ened, to adapt itself to its changing environment ; that the col- 
lective intelligence of the race will perceive and understand 
that "all laws and institutions and appliances which count on 
getting from human nature, within a short time, much better 
results than present ones, will inevitably fail. 91 . . . 

Sir Valentine Chirol, in the Quarterly Review, for April, 
1912, has reproduced the substance of a conversation held 
with Prince Ito at Tokyo in the spring of 1909, on which 
occasion the Japanese statesman unhesitatingly expressed his 
opinions concerning the destructive and disruptive tendencies 
of Young China, and the reasons which make it impossible to 
hope that, following their lead, the Chinese people can ever 
hope to emulate the political and material successes of 
Japan. . . . 

"So far, also, it must be regretfully confessed that there is 
in China no class of the community which seems competent 
to take the lead in a great national movement. The official 
class, in spite of some brilliant exceptions, is as a whole no- 
toriously incompetent and corrupt. The merchants may be 
taken as the nearest equivalent to a middle class in China, 
and in business they have acquired a considerable reputation 
for honesty and intelligence, but they have always held aloof 
from public affairs, which, with the Chinese talent for special- 
ization, they regard as entirely outside their own sphere of 
activity. The great mass of the population ' is probably even 
more inert in China than in most Oriental countries. It is 
thrifty and extremely industrious, and has been accustomed 
for so many centuries to be treated by its rulers as the 'stupid 
people' that it may be held now almost to justify its nickname 
by its supreme indifference to everything beyond its own nar- 
row horizon of narrow toil. The young students who have 
returned from abroad form a very vocal and not unimportant 
body of agitators, many of whom are animated with excellent 
intentions, but they have hardly any roots in the country, and 
they can hardly be said to form a class capable of directing 
and controlling any practical course of action. As for the 
Chinese army, it would seem extremely improbable that in 
such a country as China, so completely bereft of all military 
traditions, an army could be organized that would possess 
both the efficiency and the discipline required by such an 
emergency." . . . 

—J. O. P. Bland, Recent Events and Present Policies in 
China. 



Results of Revolution 71 

When a year or so ago the surprising intelligence began to 
be bruited abroad that there was to be a "republic" in China, 
it is probable that there were many warm friends of China, 
who, like the writer of these lines, felt and said that the 
notion that China in its present state of evolution could be- 
come a republic was "the quintessential essence of bottled 
moonshine." There is still substantial truth in this view, and 
will continue to be for an indefinite period. But in the light 
of the events of the past twelve months it needs modification 
of statement by the qualifying clause that, although the Chi- 
nese cannot possibly have a "republic" at present, they may 
have something which they call a republic, and which 
may ultimately develop into such. The intermediate 
stages must be those of an oligarchy under republican forms 
and titles. 

The pressure of a common danger has welded the Chinese 
into a theoretical unity never before known. The new phrase, 
"Four hundred millions of our brothers" — while, as yet, only 
a phrase — has within it the promise and potency of united 
action such as China has never experienced. Once gained, 
this cannot be lost, for the causes of its evolution are deep- 
seated and permanent. China is now feeling the mighty in- 
spiration of a great hope. 

The Chinese have accepted the conception of China for the 
Chinese, and as never before are suspicious of each and every 
foreign design. Many manifestations of this feeling are child- 
ish, while others are dangerous to China's best welfare, but 
they show — as nothing has ever before done — the new national 
alinement. It is a great asset to young China to have before 
them the example of a man like Dr. Sun Yat-sen, who has 
persistently and unselfishly given himself to the deliverance of 
his country, and who, having received the highest honors, 
resolutely declined to keep them. Can any other republic 
afford an example like this? Dr. Sun's visits to Peking and 
to the leading northern cities have brought the northern and 
the southern parts of China into new and harmonious rela- 
tions. Whatever may be the surprises of the future, there is 
in this land a new spirit. 

There is a new respect for personality as such, a conception 
for which we have until recently had no word, nor need for 
any word. 

The potential liberation of the women of China is one of 
the greatest facts in contemporary history, the import of which 
is beyond human estimation. It means radical changes, far- 
reaching and permanent. 

— Dr. A. H. Smith, Chinese Recorder, January, 1913. 



J2 The Emergency in China 

We shall fail to grasp the fundamentals of the situation in 
China if we suppose that the triumph of the revolutionary 
cause was a triumph of ideals. So far as leadership is con- 
cerned, it was that. Those responsible for the outbreak— Sun 
Yat-sen, Li Yuan-hung, and their comrades — were consistent 
advocates of progress and reformation, and the leaders of 
government to-day are convinced believers in the need of 
reform. But the rank and file were with them, and were as 
tow to their fire, from merely negative causes. They were 
oppressed and afflicted under the Manchu rule, the soldiers 
were unpaid, the people were overtaxed and underfed and* 
were ready for any enterprise which promised relief from 
present and persistent ill. . . . So, too, the common people 
— farmers, artisans, and small shopkeepers — with the illegal 
exactions of the tax-farming officials ever in mind, had for a 
brief season the dream that the republic was a happy world 
in which government was carried on without revenue raised 
by taxation. The result was that for a while the taxes did not 
come in, and the new order of things in Peking was brought 
almost to a standstill through lack of the all-needful cash. . . . 

— ReVo Nelson Bitton, The East and the West, October, 
1912. 

I landed at Hongkong, and after a short stay there went to 
Canton. . . . Having a good opportunity there to ask 
what is for me a fundamental question with regard to any 
people, I asked the then governor-general, himself a soldier 
by profession, and recently in command of a division of the 
republican army, "Will the Chinese coolie make a good soldier, 
brave, obedient, and patriotic?" . . . The governor-general 
reflected for a time, and then made the following answer : 
"The Chinese coolie will fight well, provided he knows what 
he is fighting for, and that thing interests him." . . . 

Think how little the Manchu empire, which has been gov- 
erning China for centuries, left to the republic! No elements 
of a strong government were transmitted from the empire 
to the new government; no army, no navy, no school system, 
no national system of taxation, no courts or police of national 
equality. Indeed, the Manchu empire transmitted to the re- 
public no government organization whatever. It was not a 
real government in a modern sense. It has not been for cen- 
turies. If the republic, or the revolutionary movement, had 
done nothing else except to rid China of the Manchus, it 
would have fully justified its coming into existence. . . . 

I have never seen anywhere better evidences of a widespread 
and intense sentiment of patriotism than I saw in China. . . . 



Results of Revolution 73 

What ground is there for supposing, or imagining, that a 
republican form of government can be set up in China and 
be made stable? To my thinking, there is in the quality of 
the Chinese people as a whole strong ground for holding that 
hope. The Chinese people have come through every possible 
struggle with adverse nature, and every possible suffering 
from despotic government; they have come through recurrent 
floods, droughts, and famines; they have been subject without 
defense not only to the sweeping pestilences like smallpox, 
cholera, and the plague, but to all the ordinary contagious 
diseases, to tuberculosis, and to all the fevers. Yet here they 
are by unknown hundreds of millions, tough, industrious, 
frugal, honest, and fecund. . . . 

— President Charles W. Eliot, Journal of Race Develop- 
ment, January, 191 3. 

The Canton artillery sang a rugged song of Liberty. It is 
worth quoting, not only because it has poetical merit, but 
because it shows the spirit that was and is working in the 
souls of men: 

"Freedom will work on this earth, 

Great as a giant rising to the skies, 

Come, Liberty, because of the black hell of our slavery, 

Come enlighten us with a ray of thy sun. 

Behold the woes of our fatherland. 

Other men are becoming all kings in equality. 

Can we forget what our people are suffering? 

China, the widest and oldest, is now as an immense desert. 

We are working to open a new age in China ; 

All real men are calling for a new heaven and a new earth. 

May the soul of the people now rise as high as Kwangtung's 

highest peak; 
Spirit of Freedom, lead, protect us." 

— John Stuart Thomson, Journal of Race Development, 
January, 1913. 

As they appear to the writer, there is, on the one hand, a 
strong body of conservatives to whom the new order of 
things is anathema from beginning to end. On the other hand, 
are the farmers and laborers, who make up some eighty per 
cent, of the population, and for whom the struggle for exist- 
ence is enough. A good harvest or food enough to eat, with 
security in which the fruits of their laborious toil can be en- 
joyed, suffices. The former, the conservatives, are certainly 
to be reckoned with ; but the latter, the great mass of the 
populace, have always been followers rather than leaders, and 



74 The Emergency in China 

there is no reason to suppose they will not continue to follow 
the leadership of whatever party is in power. We have left, 
then, as the real leaders of to-day: i. the new literati; that 
is, graduates from foreign universities and mission or govern- 
ment colleges, and the whole student body, male and female, 
to whom the scholars in the secondary schools may be added ; 
2. the majority of the mercantile class, including shopkeepers 
and their numerous assistants ; and 3. a considerable part of 
the army and navy. Most of those who make up this minority 
are enthusiasts and are committed body and soul to the new 
order. More than this, they are carrying with them the chil- 
dren also, and these are the makers of the next generation. 
Readers and thinkers, editors and authors, students and 
scholars, merchants and men of affairs, stand in the front 
rank, whilst behind them are the passion and ambition of the 
youth of China. 
— Rev. G. H. Bondfield, Chinese Recorder, January, 1913. 

Our Ningpo correspondent writes: 

"The republican anniversary has been celebrated with much 
enthusiasm here. The principal thoroughfares of the city pre- 
sented an appearance of gaiety probably never before equaled, 
and in many places of beautiful effect. In the evening, lantern 
processions, representative of the commercial guilds and prin- 
cipal schools, paraded the streets. 

"One has to go but a short distance into the country, how- 
ever, to find how little the rural population has as yet been 
affected by the momentous change. The overwhelming major- 
ity have not yet discarded the cue, and there is little expres- 
sion of enthusiasm for the new regime. The prolonged stag- 
nation in trade has been felt far and wide, and has called 
forth many repinings. Rumors are continually recurrent of 
imperialist risings in distant places. The country folk are 
evidently slow to believe that the Manchu rule is really at an 
end. 

"Happily, good crops have done much to mitigate discon- 
tent, and fairly general good order prevails throughout the 
district." 
«^News item from the North China Herald, October 19, 1912. 

The great question now is, "Will the republic succeed?" 
The answer is that it ought to succeed, if the conflicting inter- 
ests of the Japanese, European, and American governments 
and commercial bodies can refrain from creating complications 
and difficulties. It must be remembered that the disappear- 
ance of a ruling house in China is very far from being the 



Results of Revolution 75 

same thing as in Europe — as, for instance, what happened at 
the French Revolution, or what would happen in a highly 
centralized and minutely organized country like Germany, if 
the Hohenzollerns, Wittelsbachs, etc., were suddenly replaced 
by a set of socialist-republican governments in the various fed- 
eral states. Chinese dynasties, and particularly the Manchu 
dynasty, have practically done nothing but maintain order and 
collect money. The virtue of the Manchus has lain in the 
maximum of order with the minimum of imperial rapacity. 
Cities, municipalities, villages, all aggregations in China, gov- 
ern themselves; trade governs itself; shipping governs itself; 
families and communities ^ govern themselves. The money 
taken from the people is in no way spent upon the people. 
Thus, even in the heyday of Manchu rule, if every mandarin 
in the Empire had been suddenly and simultaneously smitten 
with paralysis, no great harm would have been done to the 
general activities of popular life, so long as there were no 
breaches of the public peace. Anarchy, in its best and freest 
sense of "no government," exists throughout China ; the official 
body, from the emperor down to the police satellite, might 
have been raised into space like a canopy or a curtain from 
the theater of popular life without in any way checking the 
active course of the stage performance. In fact, the suspen- 
sion of "government" is often an unmixed good in China; for 
so much the more money remains in circulation unsqueezed 
from the people ; so much the more is trade stimulated 
through being unhampered by obstructions and exactions ; and 
so much the less do the unpaid police and soldiery batten on 
the industrious people. 

— Prof. E. H. Parker, World's Chinese Students' Journal, 
November, 1912. 

The people are looking for great changes along all lines — a 
new government of the people, for the people, and by the 
people — universal franchise, just laws, equal taxation, liberty 
of speech and liberty of conscience — all those precious con- 
comitants of free, popular government that are so highly 
prized by the free peoples of the favored nations of the West. 
In short, the people are looking for a new heaven and a new 
earth. That they will not get all that they have hoped for 
goes without saying, human nature being what it is. Whether 
or not the failure to get all that the leaders have promised to 
the people will cause widespread discontent and reaction 
against the government may well cause deep concern. But, 
on the whole, the outlook along this line is more of a hopeful 
character than otherwise. The Chinese are a patient, peace- 



76 The Emergency in China 

loving people. They have a wonderful genius for organization. 
They are noted for their ability to affect a compromise be- 
tween conflicting interests, and to reach a settlement of a 
given situation to the general satisfaction of all parties. They 
will, I firmly believe, reach a fairly reasonable and satisfactory 
solution of their problems in due course of time. . . . 
— Rev. A. P. Parker, D.D., China Mission Year Book, 1912. 

Washington, D. C, March 19, 1913. 

The following statement was issued from the White House 
to-day : 

We are informed that at the request of the last administra- 
tion a certain group of American bankers undertook to par- 
ticipate in the loan now desired by the government of China 
(approximately $125,000,000). Our government wished Amer- 
ican bankers to participate along with the bankers of other 
nations, because it desired that the good-will of the United 
States toward China should be exhibited in this practical way, 
that American capital should have access to that great country, 
and that the United States should be in a position to share 
with the other powers any political responsibilities that might 
be associated with the development of the foreign relations of 
China in connection with her industrial and commercial enter- 
prises. The present administration has been asked by this 
group of bankers whether it would also request them to par- 
ticipate in the loan. The representatives of the bankers through 
whom the administration was approached declared that they 
would continue to seek their share of the loan under the pro- 
posed agreements only if expressly requested to do so by the 
government. The administration has declined to make such a 
request, because it did not approve the conditions of the loan 
or the implications of responsibility on its own part which it 
was plainly told would be involved in the request. 

The conditions of the loan seem to us to touch very nearly 
the administrative independence of China itself; and this ad- 
ministration does not feel that it ought, even by implication, 
to be a party to those conditions. The responsibility on its 
part which would be implied in requesting the bankers to 
undertake the loan might conceivably go the length in some 
unhappy contingency of forcible interference in the financial, 
and even the political, affairs of that great Oriental state, just 
now awakening to a consciousness of its power and of its obli- 
gations to its people. The conditions include not only the 
pledging of particular taxes, some of them antiquated and 
burdensome, to secure the loan, but also the administration of 
those taxes by foreign agents. The responsibility on the part 



Results of Revolution jj 

of our government implied in the encouragement of a loan 
thus secured and administered is plain enough and is obnox- 
ious to the principles upon which the government of our 
people rests. 

The government of the United States is not only willing, but 
earnestly desirous, of aiding the great Chinese people in every 
way that is consistent with their untrammeled development 
and its own immemorial principles. The awakening of the 
people of China to a consciousness of their possibilities under 
free government is the most significant, if not the most mo- 
mentous, event of our generation. With this movement and 
aspiration the American people are in profound sympathy. 
They certainly wish to participate, and participate very gener- 
ously, in opening to the Chinese and to the use of the world 
the almost untouched and perhaps unrivaled resources of 
China. 



INDUSTRIAL AND COMMERCIAL DEVELOP- 
MENTS 



CHAPTER III 

INDUSTRIAL AND COMMERCIAL DEVELOP- 
MENTS 

The triumph of the industrial arts will advance the 
cause of civilization more rapidly than its warmest 
advocate could have hoped and contribute to the 
permanent prosperity and strength of the country 
more than the most splendid victories of successful 
war. 

— Babbage 

Material Progress a Standard. In a superficial 
way a country's progress in civilization is measured 
by her material wealth and by those things which 
facilitate its production. Accordingly the introduc- 
tion of railways and activity in their extension are 
regarded as indicative of an advance in civilization. 
In the recent development of China nothing is more 
remarkable than the story of railroad building. 
Thirty-five years ago there was not a mile of rail- 
way in the whole country. To-day there are about 
six thousand. 

First Railway in China. The first attempt at con- 
struction was made in 1875, when a few foreign 
merchants in Shanghai put their heads together 
and determined to see what could be done on 

81 



82 The Emergency in China 

modest lines. They bought up land for a road be- 
tween Shanghai and Woosung at the mouth of the 
Whang-poo River, a distance of about twelve miles, 
and the line was formally opened at the end of 
May, 1876. The Chinese authorities were much 
opposed to the innovation and claimed that they 
had been grossly deceived. Their contention was 
that permission had only been granted for the con- 
struction of "a road," and that all along they had 
understood it was to be "a horse road," and not 
"an iron road." After considerable friction and 
heated controversy, the foreign merchants were 
finally obliged to sell the road to the Chinese 
government. The rails were then torn up and 
shipped off with the rolling stock to Formosa. 
"Where the Shanghai railway station had stood 
there was built, as a peace offering, a temple to 
the Queen of Heaven." Thus ended the first 
chapter of railway building in China. The objection 
of the Chinese was almost entirely based on super- 
stition. The introduction of the railway would 
disturb the feng shut 1 and this would undoubtedly 
lead to some dire calamity. 

Kaiping Railway. The second attempt proved 
more successful. It was in connection with the 
Kaiping Coal Mining Company at Tongshan in the 
Province of Chihli. These mines were twenty-nine 
miles distant from the nearest seaport, and the con- 

1 Genii that control winds and waters, especially subter- 
ranean waters, according to superstitious Chinese views that 
have prevailed. 



Industrial Developments 



83 



veyance of the coal was attended with many diffi- 
culties. In 1880 a small tramway of seven miles 




RAILWAY MAP OF CHINA 

I scale or mica 

100 o mm ^ m ^e&* = ' := T?^^~ jio ' 



►JT Railways Opea toTraffic um 



Railways under Construction " 



Proj e cted Railways li nni 

Proposed Railways 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 



was built connecting the mines with a canal leading 
to the sea. At first wire traction was used, but in 



84 The Emergency in China 

1881 a locomotive, locally constructed, called "the 
Rocket of China" was actually running on the line. 
At the close of the war between China and France, 
progress was in the air, and the prejudice against 
railways began to weaken. Out of the Kaiping 
Tramway grew the Kaiping Railway. The road 
was extended from Tongshan to Tientsin, and by 
the end of 1887 two trains a day were running be- 
tween these places. 

Growth of Railways. Such was the beginning 
of the construction of railways in China, and it has 
been dwelt upon at some length, because the 
story of beginnings is always full of interest. From 
that time the development has been rapid and, 
except for a few checks now and again, continuous. 
The estimated mileage of Chinese railways (includ- 
ing those in Manchuria) open to traffic was, in 1908, 
3,000 miles; in 1909, 4,500 miles; and in 1912, 5,886 
miles. 

The Five Systems. For the sake of convenience 
we may divide the present and prospective railways 
of China into five systems. The first or Northern 
System includes the line extending from Peking 
toward Mongolia on the northwest, and through 
Manchuria to the northeast. The second or Central 
System embraces the country lying between the 
Peiho River on the north and the Yangtze on the 
south. The third is made up of the railways in the 
Yangtze Valley itself. The fourth or Southern 
System includes the lines centering about Canton, 
Hongkong, and the tributary branches in Kwangsi. 



Industrial Developments 85 

The fifth or Southwestern System includes the rail- 
ways in the provinces bordering on Burma, India, 
and French Indo-China. 1 

Effects of Railways. One can readily understand 
what a tremendous change railways will produce 
in China. One of the greatest hindrances to 
progress undoubtedly is the poverty of the masses. 
In the densely populated districts the vast majority 
are very close to the border-line of starvation. 
When the usual crops fail and famine occurs, they 
die by the thousands. It must always be remem- 
bered that agriculture is the main occupation of 
the people, and that they support themselves en- 
tirely from what they raise from the soil. Railroads 
will open up mines and render the development of 
manufacturing industries possible. It will in time 
bring about a great change in the occupations of 
the people. 

Purpose of Sun Yat-sen. The Chinese are eager 
for the development of railways because they have 
become convinced that it means the creation of 
greater wealth in which all hope to have a share. 
Economic factors always play a large part in the 
development of a country. Dr. Sun Yat-sen is so 
convinced of the necessity of railway building that 
he is now devoting his energy to the organization 
of the Central Railway Company of China. He 
hopes to be able to borrow large amounts of capital 
from Europe and America, and to cover China with 

1 For more complete details relating to these five systems., 
see Appendix I, p. 295. 



86 The Emergency in China 

a network of railways in an incredibly short space 
of time. 

Steps toward Unification. Among other effects 
will be the greater unification of the people by 
breaking down barriers of separation, and making 
intercourse easier. In the United States the people 
of the East, the West, the North, and the South 
have local peculiarities, and we can tell where a 
man comes from by his accent. This gives us, 
however, only a slight idea of the wide chasm be- 
tween the people of the various sections of China. 
In many ways their characteristics are different, 
and there is so much variation in the languages 
which they speak that they cannot understand one 
another. The people of Shanghai laugh at the 
people of Foochow and say they talk a bird lan- 
guage. At St. John's University in Shanghai the 
student body is drawn from a wide area. It is 
absolutely impossible for those from the South to 
understand the language of those from Central 
China, and when they converse they fall back on 
their knowledge of English. In course of time rail- 
ways will have a great influence in leading to the 
adoption of one language throughout the whole 
country. Instead of dialects and variations of 
dialects incomprehensible except to the people of 
the districts where they are spoken, there will be 
developed a form of Mandarin, which will serve the 
purpose of a common tongue, and which will be 
understood by all. 

Progressive Benefits. The provincial and clan- 



Industrial Developments 87 

nish spirit are due in no small extent to the lack 
of intercommunication. Railways will lead to the 
building of roads, and, after roads, there will come 
cheap motor conveyance, and China more and more 
will be knit together until she becomes a united 
nation instead of a loose confederation of provinces. 
Again railways will enable the government in time 
of famine to rush the surplus in one province to 
feed the starving in another, and thus there will 
be a mitigation of the suffering which takes place 
at such a time. 

Great Aid to Evangelization. We know that one 
of the great means by which the gospel was carried 
rapidly throughout the length and breadth of the 
Roman Empire was the wonderful system of well- 
built roads, many of which survive even to the 
present day. With the development of the railway 
system in China, the great difficulties of travel will 
disappear, and the ambassadors of Christ will be 
able to penetrate into regions hitherto largely in- 
accessible. Many examples might be cited of what 
has already been accomplished in this way. For 
instance, the journey from Shanghai to Wusieh, a 
distance of a little over a hundred miles by canal, 
formerly took three days, and now can be accom- 
plished in as many hours. The English missionaries 
working in Szechwan spend more time in traveling 
from Shanghai to their station than they do on the 
voyage from England to China. They must en- 
counter the danger of shipwreck in the rapids of 
the upper Yangtze, and are in perils by land and 



88 The Emergency in China 

perils by water. When the railway is completed, 
the journey will take less than a week. 

Opposition to Railways. Railroads have not 
made their way into China without causing serious 
disturbances. The ignorance and superstition of 
the people have not been the only obstacles, but 
the securing of concessions for building the roads 
by foreign syndicates has caused much friction, and 
has stirred up an antiforeign spirit. Although the 
lines constructed by foreign capital are redeemable 
by Chinese after a definite period of time, yet there 
has been considerable doubt as to whether they 
would be delivered up when the time arrived. This 
has led to a determined effort to buy back con- 
cessions already granted, to resist further foreign 
•loans, and to build the railroads of China with 
native capital. The former government, however, 
realizing the difficulty of raising sufficient capital 
in China for the speedy construction of the lines, 
favored the policy of raising foreign loans, and 
pursued this course in spite of its unpopularity 
with the people. 

Attempt to Bring the Railways under Govern- 
ment Control. As we have already stated in the 
first chapter, just before the revolution, the govern- 
ment undertook to bring all the main trunk lines 
under national control. This scheme was proposed 
by Sheng Kung-pao and he was entrusted with the 
task of carrying it out. It was impossible to con- 
vince the people of China that the policy of the 
nationalization of railways had much in its favor, 




TRAIN ON SHANGHAI-HANGCHOW RAILWAY 
SOOCHOW STATION, SHANGHAI-NANKING RAILWAY 



[p88] 



Industrial Developments 89 

for they suspected the government of a desire to 
gain control for their own selfish purposes. They 
preferred to have the matter in the hands of each 
province. The attempt to force the people to sub- 
mit to the wishes of the throne was one of the 
causes leading up to the revolution. When too 
late, the Manchu government realized its mistake, 
and rescinded the measure. In order to appease the 
angry multitude, Sheng Kung-pao was made a 
scapegoat and cashiered. So bitterly was he hated 
that he was forced to flee for safety to Japan. 

Cotton Mills. In the past quarter of a century 
there has been a marked and steady development 
of new industries. The cotton mill for making 
yarn was the first to make its appearance, and it 
was found that Chinese cotton, although of very 
short staple, yet when mixed with other cotton, 
answered the purpose admirably. China is a great 
cotton growing country, and the acreage under cul- 
tivation increases every year. We can readily un- 
derstand this when we bear in mind that the clothes 
of the people are for the most part made out of 
cotton cloth. Only the rich can afford to wear 
silk, and it is no exaggeration to call China the 
land of the blue cotton gown. It has been esti- 
mated that the annual consumption of cotton cloth 
is worth about $1,000,000,000, and of this large 
quantity four fifths is produced by the Chinese 
themselves and manufactured by crude machinery. 
The cloth made by the native loom is so much 
stronger than that made by machinery that it is 



90 The Emergency in China 

preferred by the peasants, and it will be a long 
time before the foreign commodity will take the 
place of the native article. In China itself but little 
cloth is manufactured, and the mills for the most 
part make the yarn which is converted into cloth 
on the native looms. 

Operation and Wages. There are at the present 
time some twelve mills, the principal ones being in 
Shanghai and Wuchang. The largest one, situ- 
ated in Shanghai, has 65,000 spindles, employs 
6,000 hands — 1,000 men, 4,500 women, and 500 chil- 
dren ranging from twelve to thirteen years of age. 
The average wage is 30 cents Mexican 1 per day 
for men, 27 cents Mexican for women, and 12 cents 
Mexican for children. The labor in this mill is 
entirely Chinese with the exception of the super- 
intendent of the mill and the superintendent of 
boilers, who are Englishmen. Six hundred looms 
are operated, having an output of 1,200 pieces daily 
of plain, unbleached sheeting which sells for $4.50 
per piece of forty yards, weighing fourteen pounds. 

Silk Filatures. China has always been famous 
for its silk, and one of the features of the land- 
scape in Central China is the grove of stunted mul- 
berry trees raised for the purpose of obtaining the 
leaves upon which the silkworm feeds. Formerly 
the whole process of making silk from beginning 
to end was by hand, but recently silk filatures have 
been erected for the purpose of spinning the silk 
thread by means of machinery, and employment is 
1 A Mexican cent is worth about half a cent gold. 



Industrial Developments 91 

given in them to a vast number of women and 
young girls who attend the bobbins. There are at 
least forty-eight filatures in operation at the present 
time, and, as the prospect of the silk business is 
very bright, we may expect to see rapid advances* 
in this industry. 

Machinery Introduced. The Chinese have come 
to see the advantage of machinery, and it is being 
employed for the manufacture of glass, soap, paper, 
and other articles. Flour mills have been erected, 
and even a factory for making woolen goods. 

Consequences of Introduction of Machinery. The 
introduction of foreign machinery into China has 
come, and it is natural to speculate upon the con- 
sequences. Owing to the fact that labor is so 
cheap its application to many industries will proba- 
bly be more gradual than it was in the West, and 
hence it will not produce such sudden economic 
disturbances. In farming, for instance, there is little 
likelihood for a long time to come that the machine 
will replace the man. This is due not only to the 
cheapness of labor, but to the fact that in China 
we have the system of peasant ownership, each 
family owning a few acres of land. 

Harmful and Helpful Phases. Machinery brings 
a new element into the social system, and until 
factory laws have come into operation it will pro- 
duce serious evils. In the first place the health 
of the women and girls, accustomed to an outdoor 
life in the sunshine, will be injuriously affected by 
the close confinement in artificially heated and 



92 The Emergency in China 

densely thronged factories. Child labor, which has 
caused in the past so much harm in the West, will 
produce like physical and mental deterioration in 
the East. At the present time twelve hours labor 
a day is frequently demanded of these children, 
and often there is no Sunday holiday. The freer 
intercourse of the sexes, so alien to Chinese social 
customs, is bound at first to give rise to much im- 
morality. Machinery will be by no means an un- 
mitigated blessing to China. There is, of course, 
a brighter side to the picture. It means a greater 
production and a wider distribution of wealth, and 
will eventually lead to an elevation in the standard 
of living. All this, of course, has far-reaching ef- 
fects in the advance of civilization. 

China as a World Competitor. To the world at 
large, China supplied with machinery — a great man- 
ufacturing country — is an interesting problem. 
Owing to the density of her population, the cheap- 
ness of her labor, the diligence, sobriety, and clever- 
ness of her people, and the low standard of living, 
she will become an important competitor and one 
that cannot be overlooked. The markets of the 
world are open to her and she may become the 
source of supply for many manufactured com- 
modities. 

Effects Probably Delayed. Some have referred 
to the coming industrial competition as the real 
Yellow Peril. The fear is perhaps somewhat ex- 
aggerated. As has been well said: "It is not 
likely that the march of industrialism in China will 



Industrial Developments 93 

be so rapid and triumphant as many have antici- 
pated. Jealousy of the foreigner, dearth of capital, 
ignorant labor, official squeeze, graft, nepotism, 
lack of exports and inefficient management will 
long delay the harnessing of the cheap labor of 
China to the machine. Not we, nor our children, 
but our grandchildren will need to lie awake nights. 
It is along in the latter half of this century that 
the Yellow man's economic competition will begin 
to mold with giant hands the politics of the 
planet." * When, however, we reflect on the mo- 
mentum with which China is now moving, we may 
well believe that the day of her becoming an im- 
portant factor in the industrialism of the world is 
not quite so far off as the writer we have quoted 
imagines. 

Christian Leaven Essential. We are well aware 
of the evils of our own industrial system. It is 
only because we are influenced to a certain extent 
by the Spirit of Christ in our legislation and in 
our competition that these evils are moderated. We 
are forced to ask the question, How will it be with 
China if the leavening influence of Christianity is 
left out? If we give China only the materialistic 
side of our civilization, will not the last state be 
worse than the first? 

Must Have New Ethical Basis. We heard some 

Chinese merchants a short time ago bemoaning the 

fact that the type of trader produced in China by 

the new conditions created by modern industry was 

1 E. A. Ross, The Changing Chinese, 136, 137. 



94 The Emergency in China 

so inferior to that of days gone by. The Chinese 
have been proud of their high reputation for com- 
mercial integrity, but they stand in danger of losing 
it. The old ethical ideals are losing their force, 
and nothing is taking their place. One has always 
felt grieved at the lack of the finer feelings of 
sympathy and pity among the masses of the people, 
and their callousness in regard to the value of 
human life. If we imagine the new age of in- 
dustrialism coming into China among a people who 
have not developed a great regard for others and 
at a time when the moral ideals are being under- 
mined by skepticism and materialism, we can realize 
the danger of the situation. Only the ideals of the 
Christian religion can quicken the consciences of 
the people and promote honesty, justice, and sym- 
pathy among them. It may sound startling, but 
we believe that the new industrialism will be a 
curse to China unless the religion of Christ comes 
with it. We may go even further: it will be a 
menace to the world. If China adopts low standards 
in her commercial and industrial life and becomes 
one of the greatest competitors for trade, she may 
drag the rest of the world down with her. The 
world is becoming one, all barriers are being leveled. 
If the West does not influence the East by her 
spiritual life, the East may demoralize the West. 
The cold blast of materialism may chill the spiritual 
and moral atmosphere of the whole world. 

Development of Mines. In recent years there 
has been increased activity in the development of 



Industrial Developments 95 

mines. The principal coal supplies in North China 
are derived from: 1. The Kaiping district; 2. The 
neighborhood of Mukden; 3. The Shansi and Honan 
districts ; 4. Shantung. The Shansi and Honan coal 
measures are of vast extent. The coal is princi- 
pally anthracite, but bituminous is found in many- 
places, and all that is needed to make these mines 
wonderfully productive is the further extension of 
railways and means of communication. Hitherto 
the state of Pennsylvania has been given as leading 
the world with its 20,000 square miles of coal lands. 
Richthofen after careful investigations carried on 
through North China states that the Province of 
Shansi will take the palm from Pennsylvania. 1 The 
principal anthracite mines now operated belong to 
the Shansi Company, a purely Chinese concern, 
and to the Peking Syndicate Limited, a British cor- 
poration. Coal is found in many other places in 
China. Indeed there is some in almost every 
province, and Hunan and Kiangsi especially have 
very extensive deposits. 

Hindrances to Opening of Mines. China is only 
held back from becoming one of the greatest coal 
producing countries in the world by lack of capital 
and her unwillingness to secure the capital by 
foreign loans. The government has yielded to 
pressure and granted many valuable mining con- 
cessions to foreign companies, but this policy has 
always been unpopular among the people. In the 

1 Later investigations indicate that this estimate may be ex- 
aggerated. But in any event the deposits are immense. 



96 The Emergency in China 

new China more wholesome views will be enter- 
tained in regard to the wisdom of development of 
China's resources by making use of foreign capital, 
and we may expect to see the adoption of a saner 
policy. The people of Shansi actually paid the 
Peking Syndicate two and a quarter million of 
dollars to relinquish an undeveloped concession. 

Government Monopoly. The former government 
also committed the mistake of making the right of 
mining a government monopoly, and has repeatedly 
prevented private capital from being used in this 
way. The monopoly, however, was not to be em- 
ployed for the advantage of the people, but merely 
for the increase of the wealth of the rulers. Thus 
the incalculable and almost inexhaustible treasures 
liave been left locked up in the earth, and China 
has continued to be poor. 

"Terrestrial Astrology." Another reason in the 
past for the neglect of mining has been the hoary 
superstition to which we have already referred — 
the feng-shui — which has been somewhat aptly 
called "terrestrial astrology." The dragon and 
tortoise lying beneath the hills have had to be taken 
into consideration. Even when left alone they are 
not always well disposed, but when disturbed they 
may manifest their anger through earthquakes and 
other calamities. "The Chinese have found their 
minerals, foreigners have discovered theirs. The 
former trusted to accident, the latter to science. ,, 
With the spread of knowledge these difficulties and 
obstacles will disappear, and the one crux will be 



Industrial Developments 97 

the matter of capital. When there is an honest 
administration in the government, native capital 
will be forthcoming. Loans will be regarded in 
the right light, and the Chinese will perceive that 
the money borrowed can easily be repaid as soon as 
the mines produce a regular output. 

Mineral Wealth of China. Much might be said 
about the other mineral wealth of China. It has 
by no means as yet been thoroughly explored, but 
the results of the investigations thus far conducted 
show without doubt that China is one of the richest 
countries on the face of the globe in mineral re- 
sources. There is an abundance of iron, and it is 
found in close proximity to the coal needed for its 
smelting. Copper, which has always been a govern- 
ment monopoly, is already mined on a large scale in 
the Province of Yunnan. 

Manufacture of Iron and Steel. China has begun 
to use her own iron in the manufacture of steel 
rails, and at the outbreak of the revolution the 
Hanyang Iron Works, situated on the Yangtze 
near Hankow and Wuchang, was busily employed 
in this way. These works are supplied with the 
best modern machinery and employ over 5,000 
hands. Fortunately during the fighting about 
Hankow, although in the danger zone, they were 
not injured to any great extent, and now the valua- 
ble plant is again in full operation. 

Importation to United States. Only a few years 
ago China imported all her steel and iron from 
foreign countries, now she is able to export pig 



98 The Emergency in China 

iron and lay it down on the western coast of the 
United States at so low a price that she is able to 
undersell the American product. The Hanyang 
Iron Works contracted a short time ago with an 
American syndicate to furnish annually for fifteen 
years from 36,000 to 72,000 tons of pig iron, to a 
steel plant building at Irondale on Puget Sound. 

Arsenals. China has been quick in learning an- 
other lesson from the West, very different from the 
peaceful industries to which we have referred. She 
has been busily arming herself, and has established 
arsenals for the manufacture of the implements 
of war. The largest ones are at Tientsin, Shanghai, 
Nanking, Wuchang, Chengtu, and Canton, and 
there are smaller establishments at other centers. 
At some of the arsenals, heavy guns, rifles, and' 
ammunition, including smokeless powder, are manu- 
factured in large quantities. Dockyards have been 
constructed in Shanghai, Foochow, and Tientsin, 
at which small steamers and cruisers have been 
built. 

Growth of Militarism. It has often been re- 
marked that the Chinese are not a warlike people, 
and they have been held up as an example in this 
respect. The former absence of the military spirit 
may be attributed to the teaching of Confucius, 
the ascendancy of the literati, and the general 
contempt with which soldiers were regarded. 
There is a proverb that "good men are not made 
into soldiers, nor good iron into nails." In view of 
recent events, the statement calls for some modifica- 




INTERIOR HANYANG IRON AND STEEL WORKS 

HILL SIXTY-FIVE PER CENT. IRON ORE 

Only sixteen miles from steel works 



[p98] 



Industrial Developments 99 

tion. Associated with the new national conscious- 
ness there has been an ebullition of the spirit of 
militarism. This is perfectly natural, for we can 
well understand China's desire to defend her terri- 
tory and to resist further spoliation. In the past 
she has made a poor show in warfare because so 
badly officered. General Gordon's remark is worthy 
of remembrance: "Given proper leadership, there 
are no better soldiers in the world than the 
Chinese." During the recent revolution some 
splendid fighting was done by the volunteers as 
well as by the soldiers of the regular army. 

Constitutes a Danger. This spirit of militarism 
is a danger, and it will be sad for future civiliza- 
tion if by any chance it should increase to such an 
extent as to constitute a menace to the peace of 
the world. Napoleon's warning in regard to stirring 
the sleeping giant is still to be heeded. If China 
learns only the art of modern warfare from the 
West, we are sowing the wind and will surely reap 
the whirlwind. 

The Telegraph System. The rapid development 
of the telegraph system has been very remarkable. 
The inauguration dates from December 24, 1881, 
when the land line between Shanghai and Tientsin 
— a distance of about 1,000 statute miles — was 
opened. In the beginning a great many obstacles 
had to be overcome on account of native prejudice, 
and in order to make it popular with the Chinese 
public, the administration allowed every one to 
telegraph gratis for a month. Even now when the 



ioo The Emergency in China 

ignorant countrymen hear the singing of the wires 
from the vibration caused by the wind they fancy 
it is the noise of the messages in transmission. 

Middle Period. From 1881 on, new lines were 
constructed, linking up different centers of the 
country. Up to 1884 Peking, with her old conserva- 
tive dignity stood outside of the net which was 
gradually being woven, and all telegrams from the 
capital were sent down to Tientsin by special cour- 
ier. When, however, the war broke out with 
France, she yielded to necessity, and a telegraph 
station was opened within the walls of the city. 

Present Status. In 1910 there were 28,124 miles 
of aerial lines and 50,000 miles of aerial wires, 
with 1,001 miles of submarine cables and 102 
miles of underground cables. Now the most 
distant confines of the country are in imme- 
diate communication with one another. One can 
readily understand something of the significance 
of this change, when he remembers that in former 
days rebellions might break out in some distant 
corner of the empire, and not be heard of at the 
capital until many weeks had passed. 

Postal System. ' Very commendable progress has 
been made in the development of the postal sys- 
tem. The Chinese have always been a nation of 
letter writers, and for the transmission of epistolary 
correspondence they established a very efficient sys- 
tem of couriers as long as three thousand years 
ago. Upon the waterways and canals a fleet of 
swift boats, rowed bv the feet, plied to and fro 



Industrial Developments 101 

carrying the mail. Postal hongs were opened in 
every city, town, and village which undertook to 
convey letters and small packages by the quickest 
route at the lowest possible cost. They were en- 
tirely the result of private enterprise, and were a 
good example of the organizing ability of the Chi- 
nese. In 1896 the imperial post was established 
as a department of the maritime customs. In a 
period of four years the increase in the amount of 
mail handled was extraordinary as is shown by the 
following statistics: Agencies in 1906, 1,574; in 
1910, 4,572. Articles dealt with in 1906, 113,000,000; 
in 1910, 355,000,000. The private post-offices have 
very largely been put out of business, and the new 
service is furnishing a revenue to the government. 
Probably in a short time China will become a mem- 
ber of the Postal Union. 

Foreign Trade. 1 The Foreign Trade of China 
has steadily increased since the beginning of com- 
munication with the Western world. Imports gen- 
erally were valued in 1867 at $112,083,082, and in 
1905 at $325,265,827. Exported goods were valued 
in 1867 at $93,598,069, and in 1905 at $165,788,665 — 
a much smaller development than is shown in the 
case of imports. Although on the surface it ap- 
pears as if the balance of trade were greatly against 
China and as if she must be drained of her precious 
metals, yet a careful study of the situation made by 
Mr. H. B. Morse, formerly Commissioner of Cus- 

*H. B. Morse, The Trade and Administration of the Chi- 
nese Empire. 



102 The Emergency in China 

toms and Statistical Secretary, shows that there 
are many other sources by which money flows into 
China, which constitute invisible assets. Among 
them he calls attention to the large sum remitted 
annually to China from Chinese laborers in foreign 
countries and to the annual income from missions 
said to be $10,000,000 per annum. As the result 
of his calculations, he shows that China's liabilities 
and assets just about balance one another. 

Nanking Exposition. In concluding this chapter 
we cannot give a better idea of the industrial trans- 
formation now in progress than by referring to the 
National Exposition held at Nanking in the fall of 
1910. It was China's first attempt in this line, and 
although compared with the great world fairs with 
which we of the West are familiar, much seemed 
primitive and on a small scale, yet taking every- 
thing into consideration, it was a wonderful ex- 
hibition of progress, and to the visitor could not fail 
to be full of significance. The large grounds were 
well laid out, and the grouping of the buildings 
was picturesque. At night there was the usual 
scene of fairyland, the white buildings being illu- 
minated by many-colored electric lamps. As one 
passed from the streets of the city into the borders 
of the exposition, it was like stepping out of the 
fifteenth into the twentieth century. 

Range of Display. Altogether there were thirty- 
eight buildings, fourteen of which represented as 
many provinces and contained exhibits of their 
chief productions. One saw gathered together for 



Industrial Developments 103 

the first time what was representative of the whole 
of China, specimens of the old arts and industries 
alongside of what was new and recently developed. 
There were buildings devoted to Education, Liberal 
Arts, Agriculture, Fine Arts, Arms and Ammuni- 
tion, Machinery, and Transportation. Perhaps one 
of the most interesting was that containing educa- 
tional exhibits, for it was a striking object-lesson 
of what had been accomplished in a short time in 
the transformation of the old educational system. 

Impression of Startling Change. A miniature 
train ran round the grounds on narrow-gage rails 
much as if China had always been accustomed to 
this mode of travel. The holding of the exhibition 
was a sign of growing unity and increasing co- 
herence in the country, and showed the breaking 
down of barriers of separation. As one walked 
about from building to building, he was over- 
powered by a sense of coming change, and felt as 
if great latent forces were at work, bound to pro- 
duce startling manifestations in the neai; future. 

Real Problem of Progress. The development in 
industry and commerce is all a part of the modern- 
izing of China. She has been influenced by the 
spirit of the age, and moves forward on the path 
of material progress. Her greatest danger is lest 
she forgets that "Man does not live by bread alone, 
but by every word that proceedeth out of the 
mouth of God." 



104 The Emergency in China 

IMPORTANT QUOTATIONS 

China is now and for forty centuries has been an agricul- 
tural nation. Much of her mountainous surface, naturally ill- 
adapted to cultivation, has been transformed by a stupendous 
amount of human labor into food-producing, fertile fields. To 
the minerals hoarded in these mountains she has paid little 
attention, never dreaming of the vast potential wealth locked 
far beneath her soils, awaiting but the magic touch of modern 
industry to release it To her present agricultural industries 
these resources of coal and metals, once developed, will supply 
new raw materials and mechanical power, which ultimately 
will make possible, in the hands of her enormous population, 
the development of a manufacturing industry of almost incon- 
ceivable magnitude, and will lay the foundation of a world- 
wide commerce. 

— Annals of the American Academy of Political and Social 
Science, January, 1912. 

On the Hankow-Peking Railway in 1904. 

From places many hundreds of miles away cargo by the 
thousand ton is pouring in, the native merchants seizing only 
too eagerly the opportunity now being offered to them for 
conveying their goods to the great markets with a rapidity 
which has never before been possible. And this is but one 
little corner of Honan, which, with the exception of one or 
two other provinces, probably possesses the richest soil in 
China. . . . 

Right up to the end of the rails there were ample signs 
that the Chinese are showing their appreciation of this new 
means of communication; for at every station near a town of 
importance native inns are going up, and godowns and sheds 
are being constructed in great numbers, thus making a new 
semi-foreign settlement flanked by railway embankments. Even 
on the construction trains crowds of Chinese manage to find 
places, and it is amply clear that the dividend-earning capacity 
of this line would turn European railway companies green 
with envy. Everything points to the fact that it is communica- 
tion, and communication alone, which is needed to bring about 
great developments in the interior of China; and once taxa- 
tion of goods in transit — the detested likin — is removed, an 
expansion will take place of a phenomenal nature. 

— B. L. Putnam Weale, Reshaping of the Far East, Vol. I. 

Side by side with the new education is the new industry. 
In nations where industrial efficiency and, in consequence, the 



Industrial Developments 105 

standard of living have been low, and the resulting poverty, 
suffering, and, in many cases, death pathetically prevalent, a 
new industrial order is appearing. Along Western lines, often 
under Western leadership, the factory system is entering; and 
the teeming millions of Asia, with their boundless patience, 
tireless industry, and ability to work hour after hour and day 
after day for a pittance, are beginning to compete with the 
laboring classes of Europe and America. This is not the place 
to dwell upon the possible consequences to the West, but from 
the point of view of the missionary several points are to be 
noted : 

1. The inoculation of the East with Western materialism. 
The Oriental peoples have been idealists and, with the partial 
exception of the Chinese, have placed little value upon mate- 
rial wealth. In this soil the idealism of Christianity has found 
root. Now, however, education is breaking down old beliefs, 
and industry is teaching these people to see in the acquisition 
of wealth the chief end of life. 

2. The introduction into the East of the industrial prob- 
lems of the West Asia has known congestion, but has never 
faced "slum problems/' in our sense of the phrase. The new 
industry is leading to the rapid growth of cities, with their 
problems of housing and sanitation. Japanese women are 
leaving their homes to enter factories. In short, one finds 
springing up all the industrial conditions which have been a 
blot upon Western Christianity all these years, and which even 
our Christian public sentiment has failed to solve. With the 
low value placed upon the life of the individual by the Orient, 
the new spirit of an agnostic materialism actuating the lead- 
ers, and the absence of a vigorous Christian public opinion, the 
possibilities of exploitation and suffering are appalling. Noth- 
ing but intelligent and Christian leadership will avail to avert 
this danger. 

3. At the same time, it is to be noted that the poverty of 
the East would have rendered impossible the establishment 
and maintenance there of those educational and philanthropic 
institutions which embody the spirit of Christ. The new in- 
dustrial development, and nothing else, can change this situ- 
ation, lift the incubus of abject poverty, and make possible a 
full, rich life for the masses of the people. . . . 

— Dr. E. W. Capen, The East and the West, April, 191 2. 

m Plans are in view for improving and beautifying the provin- 
cial city [Canton]. The old wall is to be taken down and a 
boulevard made in its place, and parks are to be laid out for 
the people. Finer buildings are being constructed and some 



106 The Emergency in China 

what in foreign style with verandas in front. Prosperity in 
trade seems to be coming. All through the city are newly- 
opened shops, tailor shops, shoe shops, hat shops, etc., to meet 
the demand for foreign styles of dress, and department stores 
for general supplies. The influence of all this passes on to 
the rest of the province. The revival of trade will gradually 
relieve the government from its present financial distress. 
— Dr. H. V. Noyes, Chinese Recorder, January, 1913. 

When the new government is established, it will be neces- 
sary that all land deeds shall be changed. This is a necessary 
corollary of the revolution. If we desire to forward the revo- 
lution of society then when the change is made a slight alter- 
ation should be introduced into the form of the deed in order 
that the greatest results may be achieved. Formerly, people 
owning land paid taxes according to the area, making a dis- 
tinction only between the best, medium, and common land. 
In the future, taxes ought to be levied according to the value, 
not the area, of the land. . . . 

The valuable land is mostly in the busy marts and is in the 
possession of wealthy men: to tax them heavily would be no 
oppression. The poor land is mostly in the possession of 
poor people in far back districts : nothing but the lightest taxes 
should be levied on them. . . . 

Let us take time by the forelock and make sure that the 
unearned increment of wealth shall belong to the people and 
not to private capitalists who happen to be the owners of the 
soil. 

— Extracts from the # speech of Dr. Sun Yat-sen, at the 
farewell banquet given in his honor by the Revolutionary As- 
sociation, Shanghai, April 18, 1912. Chinese Recorder, May,. 
1912. 



SOCIAL TRANSFORMATION 



CHAPTER IV 

SOCIAL TRANSFORMATION 

Seldom do we find that a whole people can be said 
to have any faith at all, except in things that it can 
see and handle. Whensoever it gets any faith, its 
history becomes spirit-stirring, noteworthy. 

— Thomas Carlyle 

Radical Alteration. Among all the changes 
transpiring in China, not the least important is the 
social transformation. It is not a mere ruffling of 
the surface but is caused by deep and hidden forces 
which have produced a radical alteration in the 
minds of the people. 

Patriotism and Individualism. They have im- 
bibed new ideas bound to exert revolutionary ef- 
fects, chief among which are a national conscious- 
ness, and a new valuation of the individual. The 
patriotic spirit of the Japanese has been infectious, 
and their triumphs in war have stirred the hearts 
of all Orientals, causing the present spirit of un- 
rest in the East. Individualism has supplanted the 
old conception of the family as the social unit. 
In the past a man dared not act contrary to the 
wishes of the family of which he was a member. 
He was bound not only by the filial piety due to 

109 



110 The Emergency in China 

living parents, but could make no new departure 
displeasing to his dead ancestors. Initiative and 
progress were stifled, and his duty was to go on 
in the old, beaten track without introducing un- 
seemly innovations. With the reaction against 
such ideas, we find in its place individualism run 
mad. Liberty, equality, and fraternity are on the 
lips of every one. 

Some Definite Effects. These two new concep- 
tions help to account for the rapid social transfor- 
mation. We see their social effects: I. In the 
struggle against opium; 2. In the new attitude to- 
ward foot-binding; 3. In the advent of the new 
woman ; 4. In the modification of social customs ; 
5. In changes in costume and etiquette; 6. In the 
introduction of physical culture. 

1. The Struggle against Opium 

A Surprising Reform. If ten years ago a mis- 
sionary had prophesied that China would in the 
course of a short period of time get rid of the curse 
of opium, he would have been regarded as a fanatic. 
The habit of opium smoking had gained so strong a 
hold upon a large percentage of the population, the 
vested interests were so great, and the revenue de- 
rived by the government from the tax on opium so 
large that it seemed absolutely impossible to expect 
any immediate reform. 

Extent of Evil. Indeed, as we look back over 
the history of the opium traffic, we find that all 



Social Transformation ill 

along the Chinese have been conscious of the havoc 
which it wrought, and more than once edicts for 
the suppression of the trade and the prohibition of 
the use of the drug have been issued. China how- 
ever was so weak in moral fiber that nothing was 
accomplished. It has been estimated that $2,100,- 
000,000 has been the price paid for this commodity 
above the cost price between the years 1773 and 
1906. Four years ago the Chinese were using sev- 
enty times as much opium as in 1800. There were 
perhaps 25,000,000 smokers, and 22,000 tons were 
consumed annually. In Szechwan one half of the 
men smoked, and a fifth of the women. In Kansu 
three out of every four were smokers. 

Some Possible Causes. If one inquires why the 
Chinese have been so victimized by this habit, he 
finds a partial explanation in the Report of the 
Philippine Opium Commission, drawn up in 1904. 
"What people on earth are so poorly provided with 
food as the indigent Chinese, or so destitute of 
amusement as all Chinese both rich and poor! . . . 
Absolute dulness and dreariness seem to prevail 
everywhere. As these two demons drive the Cau- 
casian to drink, so they drive the Chinese to opium. 
. . . If the Chinese seem more easily to contract 
such evil habits than other nations, and are more 
the slaves of them, is not that due to the dulness 
of the lives of the well-to-do, and to the painful 
squalor of the indigent?" 

Prohibition Edicts. "The first prohibitory edict 
was issued by Yung Cheng in 1729, enacting severe 



H2 The Emergency in China 

penalties on the sale of opium, and the opening of 
opium divans, and for the time being dealing in 
opium became a crime. ,,1 It was still imported, 
however, and in 1800 the prohibitory edict was is- 
sued anew. The only result was that smuggling 
became organized by detailed arrangements be- 
tween the importers and the officials at Canton, and 
elsewhere along the coast. Mr. Morse says, "The 
edicts never were enforced; for forty years there 
was no pretense of enforcing them in the spirit, 
and the restrictions of their letter had only the ef- 
fect of covering the traffic with a veil of decency 
such that the importing merchants might engage in 
it, the officials might not have it thrust under their 
eyes, and the dealers might get their supplies with 
more trouble, and at considerably more cost." 2 
Even after Commissioner Lin Tse-su confiscated 
the 20,291 chests of opium at Canton, in 1839, "the 
local trade was only checked for a time; the de- 
mand remained, new supplies came forward, and 
the trade went on." Thus, all efforts to stay the 
evil seemed ineffective, and on the other hand it 
gained legal recognition. 

Legalization of Opium Traffic. Article XXVI of 
the British Treaty of Tientsin provided for the ap- 
pointment of a commissioner to revise the customs 
tariff, and in November, 1858, the opium trade was 
legalized by opium being inserted in the tariff at a 

1 H. B. Morse, The Trade and Administration of the Chinese 
Empire, 328. 
2 Ibid., 331. 



Social Transformation 113 

duty of 30 taels per picul, 1 with the full consent of 
the Chinese negotiators. 

Home Production. The high tariff on foreign 
opium stimulated the production of the native ar- 
ticle, and as years went on the amount of land 
given up to the cultivation of the poppy in China 
steadily increased. It was grown in almost all 
the provinces, and in Yunnan the poppy fields con- 
stituted a third of the land under cultivation. 

Slight Effect on Importation. There was a slight 
decline in the amount of foreign opium imported,, 
but it was not as great as might have been ex- 
pected for the reason that the Chinese preferred 
the flavor of Indian to the native-grown opium. It 
is safe to say that at one time the production of 
opium in China was sixfold, and perhaps eightfold 
the amount of imported opium. 

Attitude of Missionaries. From the beginning, 
missionaries have carried on an active campaign 
against this great curse, and have always taken the 
stand that opium-smokers could not be admitted in- 
to the Christian church. The Anti-opium Society, 
founded by the missionaries, was vigorous in stir- 
ring up public opinion, and in memorializing the 
government. The name of the late Dr. Hampden 
C. Dubose will always be remembered in connec- 
tion with this movement. As originator and presi- 
dent of the Anti-opium Society, he agitated the mat- 
ter without ceasing when it seemed to those of less 
faith that a reform was a forlorn hope. 

1 A tael has the value of about $1.40, and a picul is a com- 
mercial weight of 133^2 pounds. 



114 The Emergency in China 

Influence of Philippine Workers. The weighty re- 
port drawn up in 1904 by the Philippine commis- 
sion appointed by the United States government for 
the careful investigation of the opium question was 
translated into Chinese and widely circulated 
throughout the country. Its findings, which were 
very different from the commission appointed some 
years previously by the British government, were 
startling and did not fail to produce an effect upon 
public opinion. This report was based on the ob- 
servations of Bishop Brent, Dr. H. C. Stuntz, 
and Dr. Hamilton Wright, and to them belongs the 
honor of having given great impetus to the anti- 
opium crusade in China. 

Edict of 1906. In 1906 China seemed to awake 
suddenly to the ruin which opium was working 
among her people, and on September 20 the Em- 
press Dowager issued a stringent edict in regard 
to it. This edict did not meet the same fate as 
preceding ones of the same character. The growth 
of national consciousness opened the eyes of the 
Chinese to the fact that the nation could never hope 
to be strong until this evil was abolished. We find 
the vast majority of the people consenting to the 
enforcement of drastic measures and approving of 
the imperial will. 

International Commission at Shanghai, 1909. 
Out of the strong anti-opium movement thus in- 
itiated in China there grew a direct appeal 
to the President of the United States from repre- 
sentative missionary societies and from commercial 




POPPY FIELD OF THE PAST 
BURNING OPIUM PIPES 



[P 1U] 



Social Transformation 115 

and reform institutions in the United States to the 
effect that the American government, considering 
its previous attitude in regard to the opium traffic 
in the far East, should undertake to assist China 
to secure the gradual prohibition of that traffic by 
the concurrent action of the powers concerned. "In 
the autumn of 1906 the Department of State ad- 
dressed a circular letter to the powers having ter- 
ritorial possessions in the far East, the object being 
the investigation of the opium problem by an in- 
ternational commission." As the result of this let- 
ter an international commission met at Shanghai on 
the first of February, 1909. Before adjourning on 
the 26th of February, this commission unanimously 
adopted nine fundamental conclusions, condemning 
the opium evil on both economic and moral 
grounds. 

Agreement with Great Britain, 1908. In 1908, an 
agreement was entered into with Great Britain, ac- 
cording to which the British government consented 
that if the Chinese government should duly carry 
out the arrangement on their part for reducing the 
production and consumption of opium in China, the 
importation of Indian opium would be curtailed 
every year by one tenth, and should entirely cease 
after ten years. The Chinese government asked for 
a shortening of the period, so the agreement con- 
tained a proviso that if after three years the Chinese 
government should have proved itself really in ear- 
nest, the question of the period should be reconsid- 
ered. To the surprise of all familiar with the meth- 



Ii6 The Emergency in China 

ods of the Chinese government, the edicts for im- 
mediate suppression were not only issued, but vig- 
orously enforced. It was decreed that opium dens 
throughout China should be closed and that there 
was to be no more smoking in public resorts. At 
the same time it was enjoined upon viceroys and 
governors to put a stop to the cultivation of the 
poppy in the provinces over which they ruled as 
speedily as possible. All officials using opium were 
ordered to get rid of the habit on pain of dismissal 
from the public service. Although the difficulties 
of suppression were great, and innumerable at- 
tempts were made to hoodwink the government, 
yet in three years' time a marvelous change took 
place. The number of opium-smokers decreased 
rapidly, and the cultivation of the poppy was more 
and more restricted. Travelers reported that ex- 
traordinary progress had been made*in dealing with 
the problem, and the British government was as- 
sured by Sir John Jordan, his British majesty's min- 
ister at Peking, of China's sincerity in promoting 
the reform. 

Agreement of 191 1. A new agreement between 
the United Kingdom and China was signed at Pe- 
king on May 8, 191 1, according to which Great 
Britain consented that the export of opium from In- 
dia to China should cease in less than seven years 
if clear proof was given of the complete absence of 
the production of native opium in China. And so 
rapidly did the movement go forward and the at- 
titude of Great Britain change, that in May, 1913, 



Social Transformation 117 

the British Parliament passed the measure by which 
the importation of opium into China was brought to 
an end. 
International Conference at the Hague, 191 1. 

The unity of opinion of the powers represented on 
the international commission which met at Shang- 
hai opened the way for the United States to pro- 
pose that an International Conference with full 
powers should meet to conventionalize the declara- 
tions of the International Opium Commission and 
the essential corollaries derived therefrom. Ac- 
cordingly on September 1, 1909, the United States 
in a circular letter to the interested governments 
proposed that there should be such a conference, 
to assemble at the Hague, to devise measures for 
mutual protection against the illegal opium traffic. 
The Hague Conference representing twelve powers 
met in the latter part of 191 1, and its decisions have 
recently been made public. It dealt not only with 
the evil of opium-smoking, but with the more in- 
sidious form of the opium habit, the use of morphia 
and cocaine, and it recommends a strict embargo 
upon them except for medical purposes. 

Appeal of Tong Kaison. H. E. Tong Kaison, one 
of the Chinese commissioners to the Hague, Voiced 
the sentiment of a great number of his fellow coun- 
trymen in the eloquent appeal made to the English 
people at a reception given at the Hotel Cecil. He 
concluded his speech in the following words: 
"Therefore for the sake of your national righteous- 
ness, for the sake of your fame, for the sake of 



Ii8 The Emergency in China 

humanity at large, and of the Chinese people in 
particular, and for the sake of our Lord Jesus 
Christ, in whose sight we are all God's children, 
and who has taught us to love others as ourselves, 
we invoke your continued cooperation in this opium 
question until the last shipment of Indian opium 
has been landed in China, until the last opium pipe 
has been burnt, and until the last acre of poppy 
shall have been uprooted, and the opium evil has 
disappeared not only in China, but throughout all 
the world." 

Revelation of the Race. We can thank God for 
this wonderful change of public opinion. In wit- 
nessing China's struggle to master the giant evil, 
one gets a new idea of the race. The description 
"phlegmatic" is hardly applicable to a people who 
have held great holocausts of opium pipes and the 
utensils used in the preparation of the smoke in 
centers like Foochow and Shanghai. 

Moral Basis Required. During the transition pe- 
riod which followed the revolution, in some of the 
provinces there has been a recrudescence of the cul- 
tivation of the poppy. The profits of the trade are 
so large and the people are so poor that the tempta- 
tion to engage in it is always great. As the cen- 
tral government becomes stronger, a more de- 
termined attempt is being made to carry out the 
policy of complete suppression. Still, we know 
that legislation, however drastic, cannot of itself 
eradicate an abuse like this. "There is no law that 
cannot be defeated by the clever wicked." Moral 



Social Transformation 119 

reform alone can save China from the curse of 
opium, for only in this way can she learn the true 
principle of reverence for the body. 

Danger from Strong Intoxicants. We cannot be 
blind to the danger of China's substituting one vice 
for another. In relinquishing opium she may turn 
to strong intoxicants. Indeed, in a place like 
Shanghai, the young men are taking to strong 
drink in a startling manner, and drunkenness in 
China is on the increase. It used to be said that 
one seldom met a drunken man on the street of a 
Chinese city. The nation had reached a high stand- 
ard of sobriety in regard to the use of alcohol. 
There is reason to believe that this will no longer 
be true unless a new power of self-restraint is de- 
veloped. The moral fiber of the race must be 
strengthened by the power that comes from the 
Christian religion. 

Strenuous Home Methods. The following story 
illustrates the determination of a large part of the 
people in the struggle with opium. A Chinese was 
guilty of infringing the law, but was afraid of his 
wife, and patronized a sly den. One day he re- 
turned to his home thoroughly saturated. His wife 
who had been waiting for him pounced upon him, 
took his pipe from his pocket, and broke it in 
pieces. Then seizing the ear of the unhappy man, 
she gave him a tremendous lecture, and ended her 
attack by dragging him into a darE room, where 
she kept him for ten days. At the close of that 
period, she let him loose, but he was a wreck. She 



120 The Emergency in China 

conquered him, and during the painful days he con- 
quered the habit. 



2. New Attitude toward Foot-binding 

A Social Evil. In recent years China has made 
good progress in her battle against another social 
evil — foot-binding, — and we see the evidences of a 
new public opinion in regard to the practise. 

Origin of the Custom. The custom is at least 
two thousand years old, but its origin is shrouded 
in obscurity. The most natural explanation of the 
cruel custom is that it was due to female vanity, 
and was an attempt to enhance natural beauty by 
artificial means. In the imperial harem the concu- 
bines vied with one another in compressing their 
feet so as to gain the favor of the emperor and the 
people naturally followed the custom of the court. 
There is no evidence that it arose because once in 
the dim past, some ill-starreH empress had club- 
feet, nor because the husbands desired to keep their 
wives from gadding. In proof of its antiquity, we 
find frequent allusions to it in ancient poems. The 
poets of the Tsin Dynasty (265-420 A. D.) refer 
to it, and we find such expressions as, "With little 
steps her feet stir, up the dust" ; and again, "My 
shoes are embroidered, my feet are as delicate as 
the buds of spring; but there is no one who pays 
special attention to me, except myself, who knows 
the pain." 

Tyrannous Cruelty of the Custom. There is no 



Social Transformation 121 

more striking instance of the tyranny of custom 
than foot-binding affords. We need not describe 
the process again or enlarge upon its cruelty, for 
the Chinese proverb that "A pair of golden lilies 
costs a jar of tears" is sufficient evidence of their 
own realization of the pain and misery which it 
costs. 

Kang Hsi's Edict. The Manchu women do not 
bind their feet, and during the last dynasty no 
small-footed women were admitted into the palace. 
The Emperor Kang Hsi (1662-1723) attempted to 
put a stop to the practise and issued an edict against 
it. Public opinion was, however, too strong and the 
edict led to so much trouble that he was obliged 
to rescind it. The Chinese argued that it was an 
ancient custom, that it helped to distinguish their 
daughters from large-footed slave girls, and that it 
gave their daughters a better chance in the mar- 
riage market, inasmuch as the taste of men ran 
strongly in the direction of wives with small feet. 

Edict of the Late Empress Dowager, 1902, After 
her return from her flight to Sianfu, the late 
Empress Dowager Tzu Hsi adopted the role of a 
reformer, and in 1902 issued an edict discouraging, 
but not absolutely forbidding foot-binding. This 
pronouncement from the throne was important, in- 
asmuch as it made it possible for the high officials 
throughout the empire to lend the weight of their 
influence in opposing the custom. 

Work of the Missionaries. The credit of carry- 
ing on an active crusade against it belongs, how- 



122 The Emergency in China 

ever, to the Christian missionaries. Here, as in 
many other things, they have been the pioneers 
of reform. As far back as 1870 we find mission 
schools for girls forbidding the practise, and in 
1874 the first anti-footbinding society was estab- 
lished in Amoy. 

Natural Foot Society. The Natural Foot Society 
(Tien Tsu Hui) was organized in Shanghai in 
1895 by ten ladies of different nationalities, and it 
was fortunate in having as its secretary, Mrs. Archi- 
bald Little, the wife of an English merchant, w r ho 
was indefatigable in her efforts to extend the move- 
ment. She traveled throughout the country, mak- 
ing addresses on the subject and interviewing high 
officials. Literature was circulated broadcast, and 
Peking was bombarded with memorials. By nu- 
merous mass-meetings attention was called to the 
subject and public opinion was aroused. The move- 
ment had its origin just at the time when the tide 
had turned in China, and the people were receptive 
of new ideas. At present the management of the 
affairs of the society is entirely in the hands of the 
Chinese. Branches have been established at many 
centers, and a monthly paper is issued to keep the 
question before the minds of those who read and 
think. 

The Changed Fashion. It is a social practise now 
on the wane, and is destined in course of time to 
disappear. The women of the new China are op- 
posed to it, and the young men who have received 
an enlightened education want wives with natural 



Social Transformation 123 

feet. Instead of being proud of her little golden 
lilies as formerly, the modern Chinese girl strives 
to conceal the fact that her feet have been bound, 
by wearing large shoes and padding the extra space 
in them with cotton. You will sometimes see 
groups of women comparing their feet to see who 
can boast of the largest ! 

Dr. Morrison's Opinion. Still we must be sober 
in our statements, and we must not think of the 
battle as already won. Dr. Morrison, formerly the 
correspondent in Peking for the London Times, 
and now adviser to the Chinese government, after 
a journey through the interior calculates that 
ninety-five per cent, of the females still have mu- 
tilated feet. He says : "Speaking broadly, the re- 
form has not reached further than the cities, and 
the higher classes. Much of the open country is 
not yet aware there is such a movement. ... It is 
safe to say that at the present there are in China 
seventy million pairs of deformed, aching, and un- 
sightly feet — the sacrifice exacted of its woman- 
hood by a depraved masculine taste. ,}1 

3. The New Woman 

Beginnings of Her Emancipation. We are now 
face to face with the advent of the new woman in 
China. Much has been written about the seclusion 
of the women of the East. While not as strict 
in China as in other Oriental countries, yet the at- 

1 Quoted from E. A. Ross, The Changing Chinese, 182. 



124 The Emergency in China 

titude of the stronger toward the weaker sex has 
been much the same. The wife was referred to as 
"the little stay-at-home," and she was not supposed 
to be concerned with anything outside the family 
life. Polygamy, one of the curses of China, has 
done more than anything else to degrade woman, 
and to keep her the slave or the toy of man. Her 
education was generally neglected, and her only 
functions were considered to be child-bearing and 
home-keeping. Her life was one ceaseless round of 
obedience first to father, then to husband, and then 
in her widowhood to her eldest son. 

Emptiness of Her Life. A visit to the house of 
a well-to-do Chinese family reveals the emptiness of 
the life of women in China under the old regime. 
The writer was once entertained for three days by a 
wealthy silk merchant in an inland city and during 
all that time never laid eyes on any of the ladies 
of the household. As he walked in the garden, 
however, he was conscious that they were peeping 
at him from behind the blinds, for some had prob- 
ably never seen a foreigner before. Only a woman 
could gain access to the women's apartments. Such 
a female visitor would find quite a number of ladies, 
living in the one household, the mother, her daugh- 
ters and her daughters-in-law; for, according to 
the old custom, when a son married, he did not set 
up a new home but brought his wife back to his 
father's house. There would also be a large number 
of children and many women servants to look after 
them. The ladies of the household have little to 



Social Transformation 125 

occupy their attention, for the children are cared 
for by the nurses. To while away the time they 
indulge in novel reading, if they can read, and in 
gambling with dominoes. They seldom go out and 
then only in sedan chairs to pay a visit to female 
relatives. Private theatricals are the great diver- 
sion at the holiday periods, when traveling compa- 
nies are hired to give performances. It is a life 
utterly devoid of large interests and ideas, and it 
results in mental and moral stagnation. 

Influence of New Ideas. All this is rapidly chang- 
ing, the new ideas as to the equality of the sexes, 
the importance of female education, and women's 
rights are exerting a great influence in China. 

Struggle between Old and New Views. It is in- 
teresting to note the struggle between old inherited 
conceptions and the new ideas. As an example, 
we may cite the following instance. A short time 
ago, the wife of a young educated Chinese teacher, 
in her grief at the death of her husband determined 
to commit suicide, but before doing so, she wrote 
a paper beseeching her parents-in-law not to squan- 
der any money upon her funeral ceremonies, but 
to use all she left, and what might be obtained from 
the sale of her jewels as a fund to assist the new 
schools recently founded for enlightening her 
countrymen. The act of suicide on the part of a 
widow, according to old ideals, was most merito- 
rious, for by so doing she accompanies her lord and 
master to Hades, to wait upon him there, and she 
shows that her grief is so great that she cannot 



126 The Emergency in China 

longer bear to remain in the world of the living. 
On the other hand, her expressed wish to have her 
property used for the benefit of educational insti- 
tutions was an evidence that she had been influ- 
enced by the new patriotic conceptions now spread- 
ing in China. 

Dangers of the Movement. Of course, the new 
woman is inclined to go to extremes. Boldness and 
boisterousness often take the place of the gentle- 
ness and modesty for which she has always been 
renowned. Unaccustomed to the free intermingling 
of the sexes, there is grave danger lest her liberty 
may not too often lead to her ruin. All transitions 
of a sudden nature are full of peril. Nowadays we 
find young girls making patriotic speeches at 
crowded meetings of men, and their advocacy of 
reforms has had a great influence on the other sex. 

Extreme or Striking Features. During the revo- 
lution an Amazon corps was formed, comprised of 
young girls, and they were anxious to take part 
in the fighting. They have adopted as their model 
Jeanne d'Arc, and quite a number of them have 
been martyrs in the cause of liberty. Chinese suf- 
fragettes waited upon the provisional government 
in Nanking demanding the vote for women, and 
resorted to the same violent methods of window 
smashing as their sisters in the British Isles. One 
of the most striking signs of the times is the editing 
by a woman in Peking of a daily newspaper for 
women in colloquial Mandarin. The women are 
active in the formation of various societies. One 



Social Transformation 127 

is for curbing the undue authority of the mother- 
in-law, noted for tyranny and harshness. Another 
has a very comprehensive aim, and is called "The 
Chinese Women's Enlightenment Society." 

Ambitions of Schoolgirls and Musicians. Schools 
have been started for girls, and the pupils in them 
are all radicals in regard to reform. Many of them 
ran away and joined the revolution. Foreign mu- 
sic has become all the rage, and the new Chinese 
woman is desirous of learning to play the piano 
and to sing foreign songs. The story is told of 
a Chinese lady entertaining her friends at a re- 
ception by playing and singing "Waltz Me Around 
Again Willie. " "The mental vision of a dignified 
Chinese lady, solemnly singing that ridiculous rag- 
time to a roomful of equally dignified and ceremoni- 
ous guests, would be irresistibly funny if it were 
not so pathetic." 1 

Need of Christian Teaching. Confucius was si- 
lent as to women. From his point of view they 
were a negligible quantity and were to have no 
personality of their own. Christianity has given 
the world the noble type of Christian womanhood. 
In her days of change, one of China's greatest needs 
is the gospel of Christ which gives woman her 
rightful place, and at the same time ennobles her 
character. "All the railroads that may be built, 
all the mines that may be opened, all the trade 
that may be fostered cannot add half as much 
to the happiness of the Chinese people as the cul- 

1 Margaret E. Burton, Education of Women in China, 185. 



128 The Emergency in China 

tivation of the greatest of their undeveloped re- 
sources — their womanhood." 1 

4. The Modification of Social Customs 

A Cruel Type of Slavery. Slavery has existed in 
China for a long period of time and until recently 
the people have been utterly callous in regard to 
its evils. In the families of officials and the wealthy 
gentry you will always find several slave girls. 
They are the absolute property of their owners 
and when treated cruelly have no redress. This 
pernicious social custom has given rise to the kid- 
naping of little girls, and they are often enticed 
away from their homes and sold as slaves to well- 
to-do families or to the keepers of brothels. The 
fiendish cruelty sometimes practised on these chil- 
dren is almost incredible. 

Founding of the Slave Refuge. Recently, through 
the efforts of some missionaries and the ladies of 
the foreign settlement, a slave refuge has been 
established in Shanghai, which has as its object 
the rescue of these girls and giving them a com- 
fortable home and a useful education. 

A Sad Incident. A well-known missionary tells 
of a little girl of seven who had been sold by her 
father to a wealthy family in Nanking. "The mite 
was with some other little girls set to wait in at- 
tendance at night on the Tai Tai to whom she had 
been sold. Because she fell asleep she was beaten 

1 E. A. Ross, The Changing Chinese, 2x5. 



Social Transformation 129 

and then burned with red-hot opium needles. These 
measures having failed to overcome the law of na- 
ture, her hands and feet were tied crosswise, and 
she was left to starve. Ultimately she was rescued 
and taken to a hospital, but gangrene set in and 
she had to lose both feet at the ankles, one hand 
at the wrist, and all the fingers on the other hand. 
No native court outside of Shanghai takes cogniz- 
ance of such cases, for in the opinion of the Chinese 
the slave girl is the absolute property of her mis- 
tress to torture and to kill if she so wishes. Slav- 
ery in China finds its victims not in the strong and 
robust, but in the bodies of helpless and hopeless 
little children." 

Agencies of Relief. Public opinion is being 
aroused in regard to the matter. A short time ago 
a play given by some students of St. John's Col- 
lege for the benefit of the Slave Refuge depicted 
the evils of the system so graphically that many in 
the audience were moved to tears. The new valua- 
tion now placed on woman is helping to direct at- 
tention to this great blot in China's social life, and 
as time goes on we may hope to see it wiped out. 

5. Change in Costume and Etiquette 

Philosophy of Clothes. Carlyle was fond of des- 
canting on the philosophy of clothes. Social 
changes always produce new fashions in wearing 
apparel, and so it has been in China. The Oriental 
has in the past been known for his loose flowing 



130 The Emergency in China 

garments, which give him a far more dignified ap- 
pearance than that of the Westerner with his tight- 
fitting costume. Bret Harte has humorously de- 
scribed the number of things the Chinese cook 
could conceal in his capacious sleeves. The Orien- 
tal was never in a hurry, and did not mind the hin- 
drance to rapid locomotion caused by his long gown, 
but in the new China time begins to be of value. 
The East has begun to hustle and in consequence 
we see a change in raiment. Tight-fitting garments 
and sleeves are now the order of the day. The old 
shoe made of satin with the toes sticking out well 
over the sole has been discarded, and in its place 
one made of leather, well adapted for walking, has 
been introduced. The new costume is not nearly 
so picturesque as the old, and this is especially the 
case with the apparel of the women. Ugly tight 
trousers and close-fitting upper garments have 
taken the place of a dress which was both sensible 
and beautiful. 

Cue-cutting. We are also witnessing the passing 
of the cue. For a long time past the student class 
has been anxious to get rid of this appendage, and 
many of them did so by adopting the European 
dress. Since the revolution, however, cue-cutting 
has become a common practise. The hated sign of 
Manchu domination had to go, and before long it 
will be impossible to speak contemptuously of 
China as the land of pigtails. Strangely enough, 
many of the laboring classes refuse to part with 
their long hair, and a good deal of trouble was 



Social Transformation 131 

caused when the new government attempted to 
make cue-cutting compulsory. After the cutting 
of the cues there was great demand for foreign caps 
to take the place of the round silk hat formerly- 
worn by all. It is said that Japan did an enormous 
trade in foreign hats sent to China in the first few 
months after the revolution. 

Change in Etiquette. The old Chinese etiquette 
was cumbrous in the extreme. No people ever laid 
more emphasis on the importance of ceremony. 
One of the favorite text-books in the old system of 
education was the Book of Rites, with rules and 
regulations for the whole conduct of life. At the 
present time, in place of extreme politeness, a 
brusqueness and rudeness of manner are often in 
evidence. There was so much that was hollow and 
artificial in the old ceremonial etiquette that a 
strong reaction against it has set in and for a time 
there is a lack of manners. The natural suavity 
and dignity of the Chinese will doubtless reassert 
itself, but during the period of transition one some- 
times misses the old-fashioned courtesy for which 
the Chinese were noted. 

New Marriage Customs. The new marriage cus- 
toms of China are significant of a transition period, 
and we find that much of the old ceremonial has 
been discarded. Among the progressives the bride 
no longer wears the red veil, and the contracting 
parties make their promises to one another face to 
face in the presence of the invited guests. Accord- 
ing to ancient Chinese custom the bride was treated 



132 The Emergency in China 

like a puppet pulled by strings and remained 
speechless throughout the whole ceremony. The 
woman who accompanied her not only acted as her 
spokesman, but moved her arms up and down for 
her when she was saluted. In the bridal chamber, 
the male guests were allowed great license in criti- 
cizing and making fun of her appearance, her own 
personal feelings not being regarded to the slight- 
est extent. It is good to see such customs passing 
away, for they were the expression of the low re- 
gard in which woman under the older standards has 
been held. 

Workings of Individualism. With the freer in- 
termingling of the sexes, marriages are now often 
made as the result of personal choice on the part 
of the contracting parties, and the power of the go- 
betweens is on the wane. The educated young man 
demands the right to see and know the girl who 
is to be his life partner, and the new independent 
young woman insists on being consulted before she 
is disposed of in the matrimonial market. Formerly 
what was for the good of the family was the only 
consideration, and so the wills of the young people 
were subordinated to those of the elders. The rise 
of individualism now places the emphasis on the 
likes and dislikes of those who enter into the union. 
Of course, in the treaty ports where the civiliza- 
tion of the East and the West meet, the Chinese are 
more progressive than in the interior, but through 
the influence of the press, and the freer communi- 
cation between different parts of the country, the 



Social Transformation 133 

new ideas in regard to marriage are spreading 
rapidly. 

Spirit of Radicalism. In the work of reform, 
young China is imbued with a spirit of radicalism. 
It is as if they would say to the rest of the world 
in a defiant spirit, we will adopt no half measures. 
Some preach openly that China is to be an example 
to other nations by going further in social develop- 
ment than any of them have dared to go. Out and 
out socialism and many of the ideas of the revo- 
lutionary period in France are advocated. Looser 
ideas in regard to marriage are gaining in favor 
with the most advanced reformers, and divorce is 
to be made easier. The wildest notions are readily 
assimilated, and all restraints are cast aside. At 
such a time she is like a ship without a compass and 
appeals strongly to the sympathy of those who 
know what she needs to guide her safely in her 
new social development. Civilization may be said 
to be at the crossroads in China, and now is the 
time to determine whether it is to be Christian 
or unchristian. 

6. Introduction of Physical Culture 

Former Absence of Athletics. The last feature in 
the social transformation w r hich we shall mention 
is the introduction of physical culture. In years 
gone by one of the great contrasts between the 
youth of the East and the West was the lack of 
athletic sports and outdoor exercises among the 



134 The Emergency in China 

former. The children of the East have always been 
fond of play and have many excellent games, but 
when they passed from childhood and entered on 
the life of the student all vigorous forms of exer- 
cise were discontinued. It was considered undigni- 
fied for the student to appear without his long 
gown. His school hours were long, leaving him lit- 
tle time for recreation, and his teacher frowned 
upon anything that looked like levity. The result 
was to make him a little old man, and to suppress 
in an unnatural way all his instincts for physical 
activity. He generally grew up weak and anemic, 
and developed no biceps to which he could point 
with pride as the Western boy does. Instead of 
being manly, he was apt to become effeminate. 

A Difficult Start. The writer well remembers 
his first attempt to introduce sports into St. John's 
College. When a notice had to be written urging 
the students to take part, the Chinese scribe was at 
a loss how to word it until the brilliant idea struck 
him that in the days of the ancient worthies the 
young men of China had actually competed in arch- 
ery. A good deal of coaxing was necessary to in- 
duce the lads to doff their long gowns so that they 
might be less trammeled in the running of races. 

Growth of Sports. A wonderful transformation 
has taken place within the last few years. We now 
find that in almost every school in the country, 
a place is found for athletics. In the larger insti- 
tutions, the authorities sometimes grant a three 
days' holiday when the annual date for sports comes 




CHINESE CADETS 

Tug of war 
At work on the bars 



[P 134] 



Social Transformation 135 

round, — one for preparation, one for the contest, 
and one to enable the wearied athletes to recup- 
erate from their exertions. On the day of the field 
and track meets, the Chinese youth may now be 
seen clad in the light raiment of the athletes of the 
West. Some of them take these sports very seri- 
ously, and go through a long period of training, and 
some very creditable records have already been 
made. Football, baseball, basketball, and tennis 
are growing in popularity, and are entered into 
with great zest. 

National Athletic Meet. In connection with the 
Nanking Industrial Exposition, a national athletic 
meet was held, and young men assembled from all 
parts of China to compete with one another. It 
was the first occurrence of anything of this nature, 
and marked a new era in China's attitude toward 
physical culture. 

Cause of the New Interest. A simple explanation 
accounts for the change, for it is very closely con- 
nected with the rise of the national spirit. China 
must be strong in order that she may resist her 
enemies, and to accomplish this the rising genera- 
tion must be improved physically. Of course the 
young men have found pleasure in this new form 
of recreation, but the moving cause has been the 
philosophy of the survival of the fittest, and a de- 
sire to increase the virility of the race. For some- 
what the same reason, in girls' schools calisthenics 
and physical drill have assumed a regular place in 
the curriculum. 



136 The Emergency in China 

Results. While this new departure of course is 
advantageous from a hygienic point of view, it also 
produces valuable moral results, and is certain to 
have a most beneficial effect upon the characters 
of the young men and women. In February, 1913, 
the first Far Eastern Olympic sports were held in 
Manila. Among those who competed was a team 
from China made up of college students. They 
made a very creditable showing, and their appear- 
ance on such an occasion showed that China was 
at last awake in regard to the necessity of physical 
training. A National Amateur Athletic Association 
has recently been formed, and hereafter we may 
confidently expect greater interest in manly sport. 
This is most desirable, for in the past a large pro- 
portion of the young men have spent their leisure 
hours in feasting, gambling, theater-going, and gen- 
eral dissipation. 

A New Type Developing. From this imperfect 
review of some of the important social changes 
now taking place, one can perceive how everything 
has been thrown into the melting pot. As the out- 
come of it all, we may expect that the Chinese of 
the future will differ in many ways from the Chi- 
nese of the past. Books describing social customs 
in China will soon be out of date, and we shall be 
obliged to modify many of our ideas in regard to 
Chinese characteristics. 



Social Transformation 137 

IMPORTANT QUOTATIONS 

Typical Arguments by a Supporter of Business Interests 

In 1910, however, stimulated by the misguided zeal of fanat- 
ical enthusiasts, Young China proceeded to organize a violent 
agitation for the immediate suppression of the Indian trade. 
. . . The agitation organized against the Indian opium 
trade by well-meaning but short-sighted missionary bodies con- 
cerned itself frankly with moral glory and righteousness, to the 
exclusion of all other considerations. . . . 

As a stimulant and narcotic, under certain conditions of 
climate and labor, opium taken in moderation is not only 
harmless but directly beneficial. The Straits Settlements Re- 
port, which embodied a systematic attempt to render a "com- 
plete and impartial account of the question of opium-smoking/' 
emphasizes the important fact, which the Anti-Opium Socie- 
ties generally ignore, that the vast majority of opium-smokers 
are, and remain, moderate consumers. 

It has been objected by the Anti-Opium Societies that the 
Singapore Commission's Report embodies the opinion of a 
colony whose ill-gotten gains of revenue are threatened at 
their source; but, even admitting that it may reflect bias of 
class, its views are based on methodical procedure of evidence 
and therefore entitled to respect. . . . 

If the analogy [with alcohol] be recognized as valid, the 
complete suppression of opium-smoking in China becomes, 
humanly speaking, impossible. To achieve it, the suppression 
of poppy-growing will not suffice : we must exterminate the 
Chinese race. For the poppy, "flaunting her immoral beauty in 
the light of high heaven/' is not to blame for man's abuse of 
one of the most beneficent products of nature's laboratory. 
The thing to be rooted out is not the flower of the field, but 
the original sin in human nature. . . . 

—J. O. P. Bland, Recent Events and Present Policies in 
China. 

• 

Our home life is too self-satisfying and self-contained. Our 
average man lives content if he can find happiness in his own 
home. As a rule he does not give a thought to the well-being 
of his fellow townsmen, his fellow countrymen, and his own 
motherland. In this indifference lies the danger of our na- 
tional life. It is the duty of every citizen who is educated 
and who belongs to the higher and middle class to take inter- 
est in the civic life of his town. If every one of our country- 
men hitherto had taken certain interest in the government we 
would not have to deplore the present condition of our coun- 



138 The Emergency in China 

try now. The majority of our people do not take an iota of 
interest where our country is drifting to. This is why we 
have been charged with the lack of patriotism. 

Any new theories, ideals, and system that involve the inter- 
est of the common weal and of future generations are either 
totally ignored or violently opposed. Conservatism is so 
deeply rooted in us and petty self-interest so caressingly cher- 
ished that they amount to obsession. The cause of this indif- 
ference, which amounts to a crime, is the lack of social and 
political organizations planned and carried out in the same 
manner. The absence of these institutions to formulate public 
opinion and direct concerted action has given rise to so many 
mushroom growth associations, each of which has a visionary 
at its head with a certain number of followers who preach 
in many instances a false doctrine; with the result that at 
every step the politician finds his path strewn with sharp stone 
chips. 

— Editorial in the World's Chinese Students' Journal (writ- 
ten by a young Chinese). 

A third significant fact is the emphasis given in current Chi- 
nese thought to individualism on the one hand and altruism 
on the other. 

The unit of the nation is no longer the family, but the indi- 
vidual. Personal rights and liberties are talked about and 
claimed for men and women in a way that is enough to make 
the sages turn in their graves. Among the students and young 
politicians in Peking and other cities there are many ardent 
socialists, whose ideas of equality and fraternity are most 
pronounced, and who refuse to use or accept distinctive titles. 
Ministers of state and pastors of churches are addressed as 
Mister, whilst girl students are ladies equally with the wives 
and daughters of the oldest and proudest families. 

— Rev. G. H. Bondfield, Chinese Recorder, January, 1913. 

But let us look more directly at the present position of 
women in China. They are being emancipated after centuries 
of serfdom, ignorance, and derogatory treatment. They have 
new and great perils confronting them, and if they are not 
wisely guided now their freedom will mean disaster. Old 
restraints are removed, and of the restrictions of Western 
etiquette they are totally ignorant. Take, for example, the 
question of betrothal. From the barbarous custom of buying 
and selling a girl bride by means of a money-loving agent, the 
pendulum is inclined to swing to the other extreme. Not long 
ago a young student went to the headmistress of a large girls' 



Social Transformation 139 

school in an American mission and questioned her as to the 
qualifications of one of the pupils, explaining that the girl had 
written to ask him to marry her. When the^ mistress ex- 
pressed surprise, his answer was, "But is not that what you 
do in America ?" Or, again, some girls in Shanghai determined 
to follow the methods of Western ladies in raising money for 
charitable purposes, and held a sale of work and an evening 
entertainment in certain gardens; it was sad indeed to learn 
afterwards that most of those girls were morally ruined that 
day. One hears of girls' schools giving entertainments to 
mixed audiences, and of young men and women^ together get- 
ting up fetes, smoking cigarettes, and traveling in trains, and 
when one remembers that only a few years ago boys and girls 
might not even see each other unless they were closely related, 
one trembles for these unmothered and undisciplined girls who 
have no knowledge of Christ and his teaching. 

— Miss Lambert,, The Christian Education of Women in the 
East. 

There can be no doubt as to the immense influence of the 
daily paper. I will refer to a specific case. About four years 
ago some enthusiastic Confucianists suggested the erection of 
a temple in Hongkong, to be consecrated to the sage. The 
Chung Kwok Po opposed the idea, and wrote three slashing 
articles in defense of its attitude. The result was that the 
enterprise was abandoned. There is no doubt that the press 
has assisted mightily in the revolution that is now progressing. 
It has worked with tremendous energy to create a solidarity, 
and the repeated assertion that the Chinese are 400,000,000, and 
that they are uterine brothers, has been hurled at the people 
till the Chinese have come to feel the magic of conscious 
strength. The papers have constantly kept before the people 
that the great powers have seized portions of the country, though 
latterly the officials have been more blamed than foreigners 
for this national disgrace. In China readers rule. It matters 
little that few can read. Those who can read are quick to 
inform those who cannot, and sooner or later the masses know 
what the classes have learned. The influence of the paper is 
felt in the inland cities. Every mail delivers its parcel, and 
so the events of the Middle Kingdom, as well as the doings 
in Western lands, are all known. I believe it is impossible to 
appraise fully the influence of the daily paper, or accurately 
gage the mass of information, ranging from the revolutions in 
Turkey and Portugal to the strikes in England, that is brought 
to the minds of their readers. 

— Dr. A. P. Parker, Chinese Mission Year Book, 1912. 



NEW EDUCATION 



CHAPTER V 

NEW EDUCATION 

As link after link is added to that chain of com- 
munication which brings China nearer to us than 
Europe was before the rise of steam navigation, it is 
interesting to know that a mental awakening is tak- 
ing place among the people of China, by which the 
Chinese mind will be brought proportionally nearer 
to our own. 

— W. A. P. Martin 

The Old Education. To appreciate fully the 
magnitude of the task which China has undertaken, 
and to get some adequate idea of the difficulties to 
be overcome, it will be necessary to sketch in out- 
line the old educational system as it existed before 
the reform movement began. We must bear in 
mind that until a few years ago there were no 
government schools, and that education was left 
entirely to private enterprise. 

Examination System. The part played by the 
government was the establishment of a series of 
examinations, corresponding in many ways to the 
civil service competitive examinations of the West. 
One of the chief aims of the private schools was to 
train scholars to pass these examinations success- 

143 



144 The Emergency in China 

fully, and thus render them eligible for service in 
the government. The examination had the effect 
of standardizing the educational system, and for 
the most part the same subjects were taught, and 
the same text-books used in all the schools. Any 
one could set up as a schoolteacher, and a great 
many scholars who had secured the first degree in 
the government examinations and a host of those 
who had tried and failed were attracted to this pro- 
fession. The pupils paid small fees, and the life of 
a teacher was both penurious and laborious. 

The course of study pursued in the schools was 
divided into three grades. First came the commit- 
ting to memory the canonical books (the Four 
Books and the Five Classics), and the learning to 
write characters. Then followed a period when 
the text-books were explained to the pupils, and 
they received their first lessons in the art of com- 
position. Lastly, they were taught to read more 
widely, especially collections of essays of famous 
scholars, and to compose the sort of essay and poem 
which they would be required to produce at a gov- 
ernment examination. Many of the pupils never 
advanced beyond the first or second stage, but 
those ambitious of passing the examinations were 
bound to take the whole course. 

First Degree. The government examination sys- 
tem began as far back as the Tang dynasty, 618 
A. D., and was continued from that time until about 
six years ago. The examinations for the first de- 
gree were held annually in district cities. About 



New Education 145 

one per cent, of the candidates was successful and 
obtained the degree of Siu-tsai (Budding Talent) 
equivalent in some ways to the Western A. B., but 
not signifying at all the general range of knowledge 
possessed by a graduate of a Western college. 

Second Degree. The examinations for the second 
degree were held triennially in the provincial capi- 
tals, and only those who had obtained the first were 
eligible as candidates. These were much severer 
tests. The candidates were immured in the little 
cells of the examination halls for three periods of 
three days each, and were put to a physical and 
mental strain often greater than human nature 
could endure. From time to time of a morning 
one or more would be taken out dead. Here again 
the percentage of those who passed was low, only 
one out of a hundred gaining the coveted degree 
of Chii-jin (Deserving of Promotion). Bearing in 
mind what we have said about the first degree, we 
may compare the second to the A. M. degree of an 
American university. 

Third Degree. The examinations for the third 
degree were held triennially in Peking. Those who 
had secured the second were eligible as candidates, 
and if they could pass the third test received the 
degree of Chin-shih (Fit for Office). The highest 
on the list were admitted into the famous College 
of the Hanlin (the Forest of Pencils), and some- 
times were appointed to high posts in the govern- 
ment. 

Nature of the Education* From this brief out- 



146 The Emergency in China 

line it will be seen that the whole system was in- 
tended to train men for public service. The idea 
of knowledge as a thing to be pursued for its own 
sake was obscured. The possibility of rising to be 
influential officials stirred the ambition of a host 
of youths, and induced them to submit to this long 
process of intellectual training. The old education 
was concerned entirely with Chinese history, 
poetry, ethics, and government. There was no 
science, nothing of the history or geography of 
other nations, and no mathematics. The result was 
to turn out young men thoroughly versed in the 
Confucian ethics, Mencian politics, and the history 
of China, with ability to write an elegant literary 
style and to compose stiff and stereotyped verses. 
Having formed a most exaggerated estimate of the 
value of their own classics, they remained ignorant 
of the vast stores of knowledge acquired by other 
nations. 

High Regard for Scholars. The high esteem in 
which the scholar of this type has been held has 
also been most injurious. The four classes have 
always been rated as follows: Scholars, husband- 
men, artisans, and merchants. It accounts for the 
fact that for ages there have been no new discov- 
eries in science, no useful inventions, and no new 
developments in industry. A people who proudly 
claim that in the past they gave the world the art 
of printing, the mariners' compass, and gunpowder, 
have become sterile largely through their mistaken 
ideas as to education. 



New Education 147 

Amount of Illiteracy in China. The Chinese are 
referred to as an educated people. The statement 
is very misleading. It would be true to say that 
the Chinese hold what they have considered to be 
education in the highest esteem, and that they look 
up to the scholar with the greatest respect and 
reverence, but the system which has prevailed for 
all these centuries only resulted in giving education 
to the chosen few. Among the masses there is a 
large amount of illiteracy. It would be a fair esti- 
mate to say that only one in twenty of the male 
sex can read understandingly. The education of 
girls was almost entirely neglected, except among 
the wealthier classes, and the woman who could 
read with intelligence and write an essay or a poem 
was regarded as a very rare phenomenon. Among 
artisans and small shopkeepers the amount of edu- 
cation possessed was only sufficient to enable them 
to read a few characters and to keep accounts. 
Nothing like the knowledge making it possible for 
them to read newspapers has been acquired by the 
vast majority. 

Outcome and Call for Change. The inadequate 
system of education has left the majority in appal- 
ling ignorance and helps us to understand one of 
the reasons for China's former opposition to prog- 
ress. Having this picture as the background, we 
can now proceed to describe the successive steps 
in the introduction of the new education. The de- 
sire for reform first showed itself in connection with 
the course of study. Contact with Western coun- 



148 The Emergency in China 

tries opened the eyes of the Chinese to the fact that 
those who aspired to be the future officials of the 
empire were not receiving the sort of training to 
make them most efficient. Something more was 
needed than the ability to write eight-legged * es- 
says and to compose lines of poetry. 

Reforms in Examination System, 1884, 1885. 
Among the reforms suggested after the war with 
France (1884, x 885) was the introduction of mathe- 
matics and elementary science in the government 
examination system, but owing to the fact that the 
literary chancellors who presided over the examina- 
tions were themselves entirely ignorant of the new 
subjects, very little was actually accomplished in 
the way of broadening the old curriculum. 

Dr. Yung Wing's Educational Mission. As has 
already been stated in another chapter, in 1872 a 
detachment of Chinese students was sent to the 
United States under the direction of Dr. Yung 
Wing. It was proposed to give them a thorough 
education in American schools and colleges, and 
it was hoped upon their return to their own coun- 
try they would be influential in the promotion of 
progress and reform. Unfortunately the experi- 
ment was never carried out to the end. The con- 
servatives in Peking raised the cry that these 
young men were in danger of becoming denational- 



1 The essays were so called, because divided into eight 
heads in an artificial manner. The style was stilted, sentences 
of four or six characters alternated, and each pair of ten 
characters had to be antithetical. 



New Education 149 

ized, and that they would become leaders of rebel- 
lion in China. Accordingly all were recalled, just 
as they had reached the stage when they were ready 
to enter college. 

Reforms of 1898. The next step in the change of 
the educational system was in connection with the 
reforms instituted by the late Emperor Kuang Hsu, 
in 1898. The young emperor was eager to modify 
as far as possible the old classical examinations, 
and he issued a decree that henceforth those com- 
peting for degrees must have "a knowledge of an- 
cient and modern history, information in regard to 
the present-day state of affairs, with special ref- 
erence to the governments and institutions of the 
countries of the five great continents, and a knowl- 
edge of the arts and sciences thereof." 

Service of Mission Schools. In the proposals of 
1885 and 1898 nothing was said about the estab- 
lishment of new schools, but the emphasis was laid 
upon the importance of recasting the examination 
system. Military and naval academies were 
founded, and a few government colleges, but there 
was no thought of a system of schools for the 
whole country from the primary grade to the uni- 
versity. Up to a comparatively recent period the 
only schools in China offering a liberal education 
were those established by missionaries. In the in- 
tellectual enlightenment of China as in many other 
things the Christian missionaries may justly claim 
to be the pioneers. 

The Decree of 1905. After the Boxer outbreak, 



150 The Emergency in China 

upon the return of the court from Sianfu to Pe- 
king, the reform measures so strenuously opposed 
only a few years before, were vigorously advocated, 
and in 1905 we find the Empress Dowager issuing 
an edict abolishing in toto the ancient system of 
government examinations. 

Memorial to the Throne. This was in reply to 
the Memorial presented to the throne by H. E. 
Chang Chih-tung, at that time viceroy of Hupeh 
and Hunan. This venerable statesman had previ- 
ously written a book which created quite a furore, 
and which has been translated into English with 
the title of China's Only Hope. Its title in Chinese 
were the characters meaning An Exhortation to 
Learn, and it was a clarion call to the people of 
China to sit as disciples at the feet of the West 
so that they might discover how to save their coun- 
try. 

biiNew System Adopted. In his memorial he pro- 
posted the establishment of a central university in 
©eking, affiliated colleges, technical and normal 
Sfcb&obte-rdn each provincial capital, high schools in 
^ddriqbrefectural city, and middle and primary 
^Ctodfitinjeach departmental city and village. He 
iM^vfeoarpcpctnrses of study, regulations as to disci- 
p4^M9nimlIir©commendations as to the method of 
^^jilshing.^cbools. His work when printed ex- 
%Aite<trmfernfi\QK volumes. The plan was immedi- 
mstf ^Hapted^ranA thus the Chinese government 
committed itself to the introduction of a national 
Sf§^ti^i Tedo&tioil. -^Western learning had at last 



New Education 
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152 The Emergency in China 

secured the seal of approval from the highest in 
authority. 

Grading of Schools. The grading of schools was 
as follows: 1. the Kindergarten and Primary 
School; 2. the First Grade Elementary School; 3. 
the High Grade Elementary School ; 4. the Middle 
School ; 5. the High School ; 6. the University. The 
nomenclature is somewhat different from that to 
which we are accustomed, the middle school cor- 
responding very closely to the American high 
school, the high school to the first years of the 
American college or the German gymnasium, and 
the university following the German plan and con- 
sisting of eight special faculties. 

Relation to the Old Learning. In compiling the 
course of study the attempt was made to preserve 
a place for the classical and historical literature of 
China "thus enabling the new education to attach 
itself to the earlier system which centered around 
the civil service examinations." This makes it 
necessary for the student to spend a good many 
hours on his own language and literature in addi- 
tion to acquiring Western learning. The burden 
is far too heavy, and is bound to result in a good 
deal of superficiality. If, however, in drawing up 
the schedule no provision had been made for the 
old learning, it would have been regarded at that 
time as altogether too revolutionary. What will 
be the fate of the old learning, time alone can show. 
It is absurd to expect the same excellence in liter- 
ary style from the modern student. The door of 



New Education 153 

real knowledge has been opened to him, and he can 
no longer spare the time or mental energy to secure 
what was a superficial acquirement of little real 
value. 

Need of Alphabet Probably the most difficult 
problem the Chinese educationalist has to solve is 
that of combining the new knowledge with the 
old. Some way must be devised by which with 
less expenditure of time he can learn to read and 
write his own language and furnish himself with 
the tools he needs for the acquisition of further 
knowledge. The Japanese have overcome the diffi- 
culty by inventing symbols which serve the pur- 
pose of an alphabet, and it may be that the Chi- 
nese will be forced to adopt a similar expedient. 

Putting New System into Operation. The sys- 
tem having been settled, the next question was how 
to put it into operation. It was and still is an un- 
dertaking of tremendous proportions and a most 
costly experiment. The Empress Dowager issued 
the edict, "Let there be these new schools," and it 
became the duty of officials and people to see that 
the mandate was carried out. The viceroys and 
governors of the provinces were obliged to as- 
sume the responsibility, and funds were secured 
in the following ways. Some schools were founded 
by the officials themselves, who squeezed the 
money needed out of the provincial revenues, 
others were founded by funds obtained from the 
people as a tax for this purpose. The gentry were 
encouraged to use their wealth in this way, and 



154 The Emergency in China 

the building of a school and provision for its sup- 
port were considered deeds of merit and were re- 
warded by the bestowal of official rank — the right 
to wear the blue or red button on the official hat. 
Contrast between Old and New Education. "En- 
thusiasm for the new education spread like wild- 
fire/' In many places the old examination halls 
were razed to the ground, and the sites used for 
the erection of the new school buildings. Temples 
were often confiscated and converted to educational 
purposes. When the globe-trotter visits Nanking, 
he is still shown as one of the sights the famous old 
examination halls. He wanders up and down the 
narrow lanes between the rows of little cells and 
in imagination recalls the scenes formerly enacted 
there. Now they are rapidly falling into decay and 
before long they will have disappeared forever. 
Leaving the vast enclosure, a short walk takes him 
to the new educational institutions. There he finds 
modern buildings crowded with young students in 
uniform, eager for the new learning. The contrast 
is striking, and he realizes something of the signifi- 
cance of the educational revolution. The intel- 
lectual force of China has now been directed into 
the same channels as those in which that of West- 
ern nations flows. In the course of a few years 
this must bring about startling results. Just as 
we have learned to make use of the former ne- 
glected energy of Niagara Falls, so the Chinese 
have learned to use their wasted mental energy 
in a more productive manner. 



New Education 155 

Some Difficulties. One of the greatest difficulties 
experienced in the establishment of the new system 
was the securing of teachers. As many as fifteen- 
thousand young men, representative of the best 
type of learning under the old system entered the 
schools of Japan, hoping to take a short cut to a 
knowledge of Western science. After a short pe~ 
riod a reaction set in, and now the number has 
dwindled to three or four thousand. The Chinese 
have begun to realize the importance of thorough- 
ness. 

Supply of Text-books. Another great need was 
that of text-books. To supply this some enterpris- 
ing Chinese established the Commercial Press in 
Shanghai. The volume of its business has steadily 
increased and is an indication of the demand for 
the new learning. More than one hundred transla- 
tors are employed, who adapt books from English 
and Japanese, and invent new Chinese terminology 
for scientific expressions. From this press issue 
primers, readers, histories, geographies, arithmetics, 
algebras, geometries, and books on all the natural, 
mental, and social sciences. Owing to the great 
demand for a knowledge of the English language, 
English grammars, lessons in conversation, and 
readers are published, and editions of the works of 
great English authors with notes and a Chinese 
glossary. In this way, Shakespeare, Scott, Dickens, 
and George Eliot are becoming known in the 
schools of China. 

Progress Made before the Revolution. The prog- 



156 The Emergency in China 

ress made by the new system of education may be 
learned from the statistical reports submitted to 
the throne in 1908 and 1910, and a comparison 
between them is interesting: 

1908 1910 

Number of Schools in Provinces 35,597 42,444 

Number in Peking 206 252 

Number of Students in Provincial Schools. 1,013,571 1,284,965 

Number in Peking 1 1,417 15,774 

Points to Be Noted. Thus it appears that in the 
short space of two years there was an increase both 
in the number of schools and students. The in- 
crease in the number of students included 3,951 
more in special studies, 4,923 in industrial studies, 
and 265,644 more in ordinary subjects. When the 
first report was presented, the number of schools 
supported by the government officials was in ex- 
cess of those supported by public contributions and 
private individuals; but at the time of the second 
report this state of affairs had been entirely re- 
versed. The educational activity of the different 
provinces varies. The Province of Chihli led with 
8,524 institutions; Shantung came next with 3,513; 
and then followed in order Shensi, Kiangsu, Kwang- 
tung, Hupeh, and Honan. 

Immense Task only Begun. On the whole these 
reports are encouraging, but at the same time 
they show that China has only begun to grapple 
with her educational problem. In Japan with a 
population estimated at sixty million, we find about 
six million young people of school age under in- 



New Education 157 

-struction. If the same proportion, that is, one 
tenth of the population, was provided with educa- 
tion in China, it would mean that forty million 
young people must be afforded school facilities. 
Thus far not as many as two million are to be found 
in the new schools and colleges. 

Effect of Revolution and Republic. During the 
revolution a great setback was given to the cause 
of education, owing to the lack of funds. Money 
previously devoted to this purpose was diverted 
to the support of the contending forces. Even 
after peace was declared, it was impossible to reor- 
ganize all the schools immediately, but the leaders 
of the republic understand that national education 
is absolutely essential for a self-governing people, 
and we may confidently expect greater activity in 
education than ever before. 

Enlarged and Progressive Plans. There are al- 
ready signs of progress. The Ministry of Edu- 
cation intends to establish a new university, at 
Nanking, comprising four faculties, in the autumn 
of 1913. Later another university will be founded 
in Wuchang, and finally one at Canton. The pres- 
ent Peking University will be completely reorgan- 
ized, and will be reopened in 1914 with seven fac- 
ulties and a large staff of foreign professors. Ad- 
vanced subjects will be taught through the medium 
of Western languages. The instruction in medicine 
will be given in German ; technical sciences in Eng- 
lish and German; law, commerce, and philosophy 
in English; agriculture and other sciences in Eng- 



158 The Emergency in China 

lish, German, or French. The provincial high 
schools will become preparatory schools of the 
universities. English, French, and German will 
be taught in them, and every pupil must select two 
of these three languages according to his intended 
later studies. The middle schools, which have as 
their object the education of a large number of 
youth for a practical life, will teach not more than 
two of these languages and each pupil must select 
one. In 1914, six higher normal schools and thirty 
normal schools will be opened. There will be in- 
struction in English, German, and French in the 
higher normal schools. The enforcement of pri- 
mary education all over China will be abandoned 
for the time being, owing to the financial difficulties 
of the country. An Inspector of Education is to 
be appointed for each province. 

Marked Advance in the South. The news from 
Canton is encouraging. The Commissioner of 
Education in that province is a progressive Chris- 
tian man, who has been Dean of the Canton Chris- 
tian College. He is busy establishing a system 
of schools from the kindergarten up to the univer- 
sity. The worship of Confucius is no longer to be 
required in the schools. The normal school has 
been revived, and has about 1,000 students. Lec- 
turers are sent about to the towns and villages to 
explain the principles of the new government, to 
urge parents to send their children to school, and 
to stir up the well-to-do to help in founding more 
schools as private contributors. 



New Education 159 

Use of Remitted Indemnity. As is well known, 
the Chinese government decided to use the por- 
tion of the Boxer indemnity fund remitted by the 
United States, for educating picked young men at 
American schools and colleges. Realizing that it 
would be some time before higher education could 
be conducted efficiently in China she took this wise 
method of securing thoroughly well-trained men 
for service in the government. 

Features of the First Years. The plan was to 
send one hundred annually for four years and after 
that fifty a year until the sum was exhausted. Com- 
petitive examinations were held in Peking, open 
to students of all the schools throughout the coun- 
try, and those who were successful obtained the 
enviable privilege of study in the United States. 
Their traveling expenses were paid and to each 
was given an annual allowance of $800. Three 
batches have already been sent, but strange to say 
the full quota of one hundred has never been sent 
at any one time. 

New Method of Preparation. In 1910 a new 
method of securing students was adopted. A high 
school was founded near Peking in the vicinity of 
the Summer Palace. Good buildings were erected, 
and a large number of American teachers, both 
men and women, were engaged as instructors. 
Hereafter all students desirous of securing an edu- 
cation in the United States with government sup- 
port are obliged to enter this school to receive their 
preparation. 



i6o The Emergency in China 

New Class in America. North Americans for a 
long time formed their impressions of the Chinese 
people from the immigrants belonging to the coolie 
class. It was unfortunate that such was the case. 
To the people of North America a Chinaman and 
laundryman became synonymous terms. An amus- 
ing story is told of a stranger in New York City 
rushing up to an Irish policeman, as the late Li 
Hung-chang was passing in a carriage and asking 
excitedly, "Who is it?" and receiving the laconic 
reply, "Why, it's that great washerman from 
China." Now people in the United States are be- 
coming familiar with the young men and women 
of the student class. Altogether there are about 
eight hundred such students in training, and taken 
as a whole they are a fine body. A large propor- 
tion are students in the universities, and they often 
distinguish themselves for scholarship, carrying off 
prizes, even those given for English oratory and 
skill in debating. 

A Great Opportunity. One can hardly overesti- 
mate the opportunity of the United States for in- 
fluencing the future of China through the educa- 
tion of these young men and women. The question 
is often raised as to whether they are favorably or 
unfavorably impressed by the national and social 
institutions of the United States and as to whether 
they are benefited morally as well as intellectually 
by their sojourn in that country. On the whole 
the experiment is working well and the balance is 
on the side of much good accomplished. It is the 



New Education i6r 

duty of the Christians of North America to see 
that no effort is spared to acquaint these students 
with their religious ideals and the highest princi- 
ples upon which their civilization is founded, for 
all that is done in this way will undoubtedly result 
in great benefit to the cause of the extension of the 
Christian Church in China. 

Some Criticisms of the Present Educational Sys- 
tem. To return to the system of education estab- 
lished by the government, it is easy to point out 
much of an unsatisfactory nature in connection 
with it, as at present carried on; and pages might 
be written by way of criticism. 

Lack of Discipline. Intoxicated by the new ideas 
in regard to liberty and self-government, the stu- 
dent class has been noted for turbulence and un- 
ruliness. Sometimes they have attempted to or- 
ganize schools on a republican basis, and to place 
the authority in the hands of the students instead 
of leaving it with the faculty. Thus we find them 
dictating what and how they shall be taught, and 
what the discipline of the school shall be. When- 
ever they fancied they had a grievance, a mass- 
meeting would be held at which hot-headed orators 
would hold forth. Then a strike would be declared, 
and the students would threaten to leave the insti- 
tution or refuse to attend classes until the author- 
ities yielded to their wishes. The Director of the 
school, generally some Chinese official, ignorant of 
educational matters, and only holding his position 
until something better turned up, would be seized 



1 62 The Emergency in China 

with consternation. The one thing he feared was 
trouble in the school, because that meant his dis- 
missal from office by the authorities in Peking and 
the ruin of his official career. Hence he generally 
gave in. We heard of one school where republican 
principles were carried so far that the teachers re- 
ceived demerits from the students if in their eyes 
they showed any remissness in their duties, and the 
demerits were posted on a public bulletin-board ! 
The discipline of the mission schools has been in 
striking contrast to the utter lack of discipline in 
many government institutions. 

Time Will Remove Imperfections. The Chinese 
are eminently a practical people, and in due course 
their strong common sense will assert itself, and 
they will see the utter folly of trying to conduct 
a successful school on the wild principles advocated 
by the students. As time goes on we shall hope 
to see many of the former imperfections pass away. 
There will be a more enlightened Board of Edu- 
cation, and greater care will be taken to place men 
of experience in education at the head of the schools 
and colleges. Competent teachers will be secured, 
and every effort will be made to construct as effi- 
cient an educational system in China as already 
exists in Japan. 

Action of Educational Associations. Even before 
the revolution, educational associations had been 
formed in all the provinces, and many of the prob- 
lems connected with the new system were receiv- 
ing thoughtful attention. At a representative gath- 



New Education 163 

ering of educators held in Peking in 1912 many 
recommendations were drawn up to be presented to 
the National Assembly. Among them were the fol- 
lowing: 1. The desirability of making education 
compulsory for all children between certain ages; 
2. The doing away with the granting of degrees in 
the lower schools, so that education might have a 
broader aim than merely preparing young men for 
employment in the service of the government; 3. 
The necessity of placing the emphasis on the pri- 
mary school ; 4. The discontinuance of teaching the 
Chinese classics in schools of lower grade. Inas- 
much as the revolution for the time being absorbed 
all interest, these recommendations were never 
acted upon. The difficulty in regard to making edu- 
cation compulsory is the financial one. It is such a 
costly experiment that it may be some time before 
the new government will be able to adopt it as a 
part of its program. 

Education and Employment in Government 
Service. Undoubtedly one of the evils China must 
steer clear of is making education merely a means 
of training those who are to be officials. This was 
one of the mistakes made in India, where a large 
number of young men are educated to pass the civil 
service examinations, with the result that the sup- 
ply is in excess of the demand. The political agita- 
tors in India are largely found among this class 
who have been rendered unfit by their education for 
anything except employment in the government. 
The Chinese have only begun to grasp the truth 



164 The Emergency in China 

that education must be a means for training men 
for professional life, private enterprise, and indus- 
try, as well as for the government service. 

Need of Primary Schools. At the outset China 
made the mistake of trying to build from the top 
downward, and accordingly the emphasis was laid 
on advanced schools. Now they understand that 
an adequate system of education can only be con- 
structed by beginning from the bottom, and estab- 
lishing efficient primary schools throughout the 
country. 

Neglect of Chinese Classics. The relegating of 
the Chinese classics to a subordinate place in the 
school curriculum is wise, for these books are en- 
tirely unsuitable for young pupils. For boys of 
ten years of age to study the moral teachings of 
Confucius and Mencius is something like using 
Aristotle's Ethics as a text-book for those of the 
same age in the West. The utter disregard for the 
teachings of their own sages, often manifested, is 
however fraught with many dangers. What is of 
value in Chinese civilization is due very largely to 
the influence of the teaching of Confucius and Men- 
cius. The Chinese have always prided themselves 
on the fact that their system led to ethical cul- 
ture. If the ancient moral teaching is abandoned, 
and nothing put in its place, a serious decline in 
morality will undoubtedly take place. Many of 
the old Chinese officials, men of the stamp of the 
late Chang Chih-tung, feared this, and it was one 
of the reasons leading them to retain the Chinese 



New Education 165 

classics in the new system of education. The young 
men of to-day are too apt to regard Confucius as 
an old fogy. They perceive that he was ignorant 
of natural science and that his mental horizon was 
limited, and they look down upon him with a proud 
feeling of superiority. Furthermore, because he 
taught the great principle of obedience to authority, 
they regard him as being sadly out of date. 

Chinese Ideographs. We must refer again to one 
more problem in connection with the introduction 
of an enlightened system of education, and that is 
the study of Chinese ideographs. It goes without 
saying that a language with a simple alphabet in- 
sures a great saving of time in the process of learn- 
ing. The American child of twelve can read under- 
standingly, but the Chinese boy takes at least four 
more years to equip himself with a sufficient knowl- 
edge of characters to be able to comprehend the 
books he studies. This acquiring of thousands of 
characters, each standing for a separate idea or 
word, is a time-consuming process, and a heavy 
mental tax. The pride of the Chinese for the won- 
derful written language which they have slowly 
evolved, and which has been in use for so many 
centuries is tremendous. It is difficult to say how 
long it will be before they adopt something simpler, 
but until they do, they will be greatly handicapped 
in the pursuit of knowledge, and learning will con- 
tinue to be confined to the chosen few. 

Mission Schools. It will not be out of place to 
say a few words here in regard to mission schools. 



166 The Emergency in China 

Until recently they had the field of higher educa- 
tion entirely to themselves. In the primary schools 
missionaries were the first to introduce geography, 
arithmetic, and simple science, and in the more ad- 
vanced schools, in addition to teaching the Chinese 
classics, they gave instruction in the subjects taught 
in American high schools. All the first text-books 
translated into Chinese on history, geography, and 
science were prepared by them, and much effort 
was expended in developing colleges in which either 
in Chinese or through the medium of English 
young men were trained on lines similar to those 
followed in American colleges. It is in keeping 
with the American valuation of education that most 
of the institutions of higher learning have been or- 
ganized and carried on by missionaries from North 
America. Many of these schools and colleges have 
been models of what such institutions ought to be, 
and were far in advance of anything the Chinese 
themselves were able to provide. 

Need of Mission Schools in the Future. The 
question arises as to the status of mission schools 
in the future, when China really extends a system 
of enlightening education throughout the country. 
We believe the present need of mission schools is 
greater than ever, and we have strong reasons for 
this conviction. 

Production of Character. For one thing, it is 
absolutely essential to show the Chinese that the 
great object of education is the production of char- 
acter. This is what the Christian school stands 



New Education 167 

for. It aims to give a knowledge of all truth, spir- 
itual, moral, and intellectual, and to show how these 
elements harmonize with one another ; and it strives 
to bring the force of truth to bear upon the de- 
velopment of character. China's greatest need is 
men of high principle, and we believe that the 
Christian school is needed for their production. 

Example of Discipline. Then again in regard to 
the matter of discipline, the Christian school will be 
a stimulating example. Those in authority are not 
hampered by the great evils of China, — nepotism, 
favoritism, the squeeze system, and the dread of 
giving offense, — but are in a position to conduct 
their work according to the principles of justice and 
integrity. 

Leavening of Common Life. When we bear in 
mind that the aim of the Christian Church is not 
merely to fit men for a future existence, but to 
prepare them for usefulness in this present life, we 
see that we must endeavor to send out men to act 
as a Christian leaven into all professions and walks 
of life. If Chinese political and social life is to be 
permeated with Christian ideals and practises, there 
must be more Christian statesmen, magistrates, 
judges, lawyers, doctors, engineers, teachers, and 
merchants, and the school and college with the 
Christian atmosphere is their proper training- 
ground. 

Religious Toleration. The opportunities of the 
Christian school will be greatly increased. Al- 
though nominally Christianity has been tolerated 



1 68 The Emergency in China 

in China, yet in reality the Christian has labored 
under many disabilities. For instance, in the 
former Manchu government, when the franchise 
was given to certain classes for the election of rep- 
resentatives to the Provincial Assemblies, the grad- 
uates of government institutions were accorded this 
right, but not those of mission colleges. Further- 
more, no official recognition was given to the gradu- 
ates of mission schools. If a mission school con- 
templated obtaining government recognition and 
being registered by the Board of Education, it was 
not only obliged to come under Chinese control, 
but was required to drop from its curriculum all 
teaching in regard to the Christian religion. Com- 
plete religious toleration is one of the great bene- 
fits secured by the revolution, and hereafter it is 
hoped that the students in government and Chris- 
tian institutions will be on exactly the same foot- 
ing. 

Service Rather than Competition. The Christian 
schools will serve as an important auxiliary force 
in the enlightenment of the nation. It must be 
made perfectly clear that they are not actuated by 
a spirit of rivalry, and do not desire to enter into 
competition with government institutions. Disin- 
terested service, not competition, must be our justi- 
fication for taking part in this work of education. 

A Decisive Decade. The next ten years are most 
critical ones, for during that time it will be decided 
whether Christian schools and colleges shall con- 
tinue to play an important part in the uplift of 



New Education 169 

China, or whether they become a negligible factor. 
If we increase our efficiency and continue to fur- 
nish models of what well-conducted educational in- 
stitutions should be, success is assured. If we fail, 
we shall take away from China one of the forces 
she can least well spare. As we point out in an- 
other chapter, 1 the new education divorced from 
religion is only too apt to lead to materialism. 
The Christian school is the greatest influence in 
China to-day for stemming the tide of agnostic 
rationalism. 

Problem of United Policy. Those engaged in 
education in China realize the importance of 
strengthening their work, and are urgently appeal- 
ing for help from Christian lands. Some see the 
futility of carrying on a large number of weak col- 
leges, and are adopting the policy of cooperation, 
two or three missions uniting in the support of oiie 
institution. Cooperation along these lines has been 
successfully instituted in Chihli, Shantung, Sze- 
chwan, and Nanking. There is a project on foot 
now for a union university in Foochow. The prin- 
cipal difficulty with such schemes is, of course, the 
matter of administration. If questions of policy 
have to be referred back to several different mis- 
sions, before they can be adopted, there is great 
loss of time, and the authorities of the institution 
are greatly hampered. We believe that a better 
policy and one making more for unity would be the 
strengthening of individual institutions at impor- 

1 See page 192. 



170 The Emergency in China 

tant centers, and leaving them under the control 
of one Church. Hostels could be erected in con- 
nection with them, if any Church wished to provide 
for the segregation of their own students. The in- 
stitution at each center would be providing for the 
whole Christian community of that area, and would 
have a right to appeal for support to all Christian 
bodies. Its policy of administration would be much 
simplified, if under the control of one board of 
missions. 

A High Standard. It is necessary however that 
we give of our best — anything less is unworthy of 
the Christian Church. We must furnish our schools 
with the best equipment, and must be ready to 
put more men and money into the work. Thus, as 
the years go by, the Christian schools and colleges 
will prove of greater benefit to this people, and 
will exert a stronger influence for the extension 
of the kingdom of God in China. The altruistic 
spirit of the Christian Church must display itself 
in the work of education. The physical suffering 
in China appeals to us and w r e send our doctors 
and nurses and build our hospitals and dispensaries, 
and in like manner the mental darkness of China 
appeals to us. We know that it is the cause of 
superstition, poverty, and national weakness, and 
we feel bound to help in dispelling it. If we refuse, 
we are not acting in the spirit of the Master, who 
laid down the program of Christianity in the syna- 
gogue at Nazareth. As the opportunities of service 
become greater, we must grasp them, and send out 



New Education 171 

the light and truth into the dark places of the 
world. 

Native Press. One of the greatest educational 
forces in China is the native press and the circula- 
tion of newspapers. Formerly news was communi- 
cated by word of mouth and by placards posted on 
the walls. The tea shop has been to China what 
the coffee-house was in England in the days of 
Dr. Johnson; and, gathered about the tables, drink- 
ing the steaming hot beverage of which they are 
so fond, the Chinese interchanged the news of the 
day, and heard the rumors which were floating 
about. 

Pioneer Conditions. The Peking Gazette is prob- 
ably the oldest newspaper in the world, but it had 
no circulation outside of the capital and was con- 
fined to the publication of government edicts. 
Shanghai was for China the mother of newspapers 
in the modern sense of the word, for there it was 
possible under foreign ownership, real or nominal, 
to print the news of the day, and to publish articles 
criticizing the government and its policy. Formerly 
there was no freedom of the press in China, and 
the only way to secure free expression of opinion 
was by registering the newspapers in the name of 
Europeans. At present at least two hundred Chi- 
nese newspapers are published, and their circula- 
tion is rapidly increasing. Through the mails they 
are scattered far and wide throughout the country 
and exert an enormous influence in the creation of 
public opinion. 



172 The Emergency in China 

Magazines a Factor. In addition to newspapers 
there has been great activity in the publication of 
magazines. Before the revolution many of these 
were edited and published in Japan and thus 
avoided Chinese censorship. The officials, realizing 
the influence of such publications, have at times at- 
tempted to buy up or subsidize some of them so as 
to make them media for the expression of opinions 
in favor of a government program. 

Two Aids in China's Transformation. During 
the recent revolution, the Chinese press, having its 
headquarters in Shanghai, was unanimous in voic- 
ing the sentiments of the people and bitterly de- 
nounced the shortcomings of the Manchu govern- 
ment. It served as a most useful organ in the 
spread of democratic opinions. Thus through 
schools and native press goes on this great work 
of the leavening of Chinese thought with new ideas 
and conceptions. It is undoubtedly one of the 
greatest intellectual revolutions the world has ever 
witnessed. 

Results Beyond Estimate. It is too soon yet to 
foresee all its consequences, but of one thing we 
may feel positive, China educated, as we understand 
education, will bring a new force into the future 
civilization of the world. 

IMPORTANT QUOTATIONS 

An Optimistic Viceroy 
We need not feel discouraged if there is a dearth of effi- 
cient teachers for these institutions at the outset. This difficulty 
will soon be obviated. This year there are numberless books 



New Education 173 

which treat of foreign subjects published in Shanghai. _ Any 
man of understanding can, by the use of these, equip himself 
in three months to teach in the high schools. In a couple of 
years the colleges will graduate men who are also qualified to 
teach. The faculties of the universities will perhaps be in- 
complete at first, but a few good men in each province can be 
found who will serve for three years, when there will be an 
abundance of useful literature and consequently better 
equipped instructors. There need be no fear on this score. 
— Chang Chih-tung, China's Only Hope (written in 1898). 

But in consideration of the evidence from the mission field, 
we have constantly been brought face to face with the neces- 
sity for careful consideration of the question whether a revi- 
sion of our missionary methods is not called for, especially in 
education. The necessity for this reconsideration lies partly in 
the change which has come over educational ideals in Europe 
and America ; partly in the uprising of the national spirit, both 
in the East and in Africa, which makes anything which bears 
a foreign aspect repulsive; partly in the greater activity of 
governments in providing education, which renders inadequate 
much that used to be sufficient and attractive in missionary 
schools. . . . 

As we have already seen, the functions which education may 
fill in the work of Christian missions may be summarized 
under the following heads : 

1. Education may be conducted primarily with an evangel- 
istic purpose, being viewed either as an attractive force to 
bring the youth under the influence of Christianity or as itself 
an evangelizing agency. 

2. Education may be primarily edificatory, in so far as the 
school has for its object the development of the Christian 
community through the enlightenment and training of its 
members. 

_ 3. Education may be leavening, in so far as through it the 
life of the nation is gradually permeated with the principles 
of truth. The results of such education are seen in the cre- 
ation of an atmosphere in which it is possible for the Church 
to live and grow, in the production among the influential 
classes of a feeling more friendly to Christianity and a greater 
readiness to consider its claims, in the exhibition of the rela- 
tion of Christianity to learning, progress, and the higher life 
of man, in the promotion of religious toleration, and in the 
establishment of a new spiritual basis for the life of society 
in the place of old foundations which may be passing away. 
In all these ways, and probably others, Christian education 



174 The Emergency in China 

tends both to the elevation of the life of the nation and to 
preparation for its ultimate acceptance of Christianity. 

4. The motive of missionary education may include the 
philanthropic desire to promote the general welfare of the 
people. There may be occasions in which the members of a 
Christian nation, confronting the situation in another nation, 
shall be compelled in obedience to the spirit of Jesus to rec- 
ognize that the needs of this people are so various, so seri- 
ous, and so pressing, that as Christians they cannot limit their 
efforts to evangelistic, edificatory, or leavening ministries, but 
must, to the measure of their ability, extend to them the hand 
of help in every phase of their life. It may even be necessary 
for a time to put the stress of effort upon things that have to 
do with economic or educational conditions in the broader 
sense of the term ; always, of course, keeping in mind the ulti- 
mate aim of Christian missions, the full Christianization of 
the life of the nation. To do so is to apply to the members 
of a non-Christian nation the principle which we in obedience 
to the spirit of Christ constantly apply to the members of our 
own nation, whether Christian or non-Christian. Christian 
missionaries have always recognized this in practise, even when 
missionary societies have not done so in theory. 

— Report of Commission III of the Edinburgh World Mis- 
sionary Conference. 



1. The missionaries are ceasing to be the only Western- 
educated leaders in these countries, and their schools have 
relatively less influence. 

2. This new education tends to break down old religious 
beliefs and ethical sanctions. These schools and universities 
are sending out into life men who openly scoff at all religion 
or who are at least agnostic. They have lost their old ethical 
moorings and have found nothing to take their place. 

3. On the other hand, there is rising a company of men 
who are imbued with the political and social ideals of the 
West, who realize keenly both the weakness and the strength 
of their old civilization, and who are anxious to see their 
countries strengthened until they can look any nation in the 
face as an equal. 

These effects are both a challenge and an encouragement to 
the missionary. They mean an ethical retrogression, unless 
these graduates can be Christianized, and, at the same time, a 
great potential reenforcement for the work of Christianizing 
society. 

— Dr. E. W. Capen, The East and the West, April, 1912. 



New Education 175 

As nearly as we can safely forecast, missionary educational 
institutions under the new regime will be private schools con- 
forming to government requirements and submitting to more 
or less government inspection. This would seem to be the 
only solution consistent with the motive of missionary work 
in general. While admitting the fact that such recognition 
brings with it problems as well as advantages, as a study of 
the educational situation in India will show, yet mission 
schools will thus become a much more potent factor in China. 
In the face of this change which is now hardly more than a 
question of time, it behooves the missionary educationists to 
formulate a policy which will enable our schools to cope with 
the situation. With respect to the future public schools of 
China, missionary educational institutions must be models, and 
certainly in every respect as good. That is where the effi- 
ciency of our educational system must take us. With refer- 
ence to the growing Christian constituency in China, mission 
schools must stand for training for Christian living ; for when 
this ceases to be true of us we are no longer doing that for 
which we came. How can we obtain this effectiveness as 
missionary institutions and efficiency as educational institu- 
tions ? By concentration. For the place of the mission schools 
in the development of China depends not on number but on 
quality. For this result, concentration of efforts and funds is 
essential. This resolves itself into the question of effective 
cooperation among the various denominations now doing edu- 
cational work in China. Our schools must not become secu- 
lar, but they need not remain denominational to prevent this. 
The weakness that results from individual effort where united 
effort is possible is becoming a distinct obstruction to placing 
mission schools where they can cope with the situation. Our 
mission educational policy resolves itself to this, the necessity 
of sinking our individual aspirations in the larger purpose of 
making our educational system adequate to the task of helping 
our Christian constituency take its rightful place in the nation. 
— Editorial in the Chinese Recorder, April, 1912. 



One result therefore, of government recognition (which is 
bound to mean some kind of control) will be that our mis- 
sionary schools as schools are bound to be made more effi- 
cient and more up to date. Otherwise they will cease to exist. 

If we can produce an education which will be intrinsically as 
good or better than that of the government, and are able at 
the same time to ground pupils and students in the funda- 
mentals of Christianity, and to mold character thereby, then we 



176 The Emergency in China 

need not fear any government control. We will welcome it 
and the government will welcome us. 

Dr. Paul D. Bergen, Chinese Recorder, April, 1912. 

The mission bodies on the various fields are, as a rule, thor- 
oughly awake to the educational opportunities of the present 
time. Strenuous efforts are being made, on every field, to 
work out an adequate educational policy and to get these 
policies adopted by those who are responsible in the home 
countries. Extensive plans are being urged upon all our 
leading denominational boards. Systems of schools which 
have been gradually developing for several decades are now 
urgently demanding, for their completion, colleges and univer- 
sities with their graduate and professional schools. Advanced 
institutions on a really large scale — comparable with similar 
institutions at home — are included in the plans for the imme- 
diate future. The genuineness and the possibilities of far- 
reaching results of the present awakening of all Asiatic peo- 
ples are too vital factors in the consciousness of missionary 
leaders to permit them to be overlooked for one moment in 
making plans for the future. The determining factor in plan- 
ning advanced educational institutions, under such conditions, 
is not the amount of money which can be depended upon from 
the ordinary resources of home boards, but it is the absolute 
demands and requirements of the localities and the conditions 
for which the institutions are intended. It is doubtful if insti- 
tutions planned on any other basis would be worth supporting. 
If there is not a real purpose to stem the rising tide in Asia 
to-day, to direct and control the inevitable reformation for 
which we have been working so long, and to permeate it with 
Christian thought, then why establish advanced educational 
institutions at all? 

— Dr. J. T. Procter, Chinese Recorder, July, 1912. 

Times have changed, and what the country needs to-day is 
efficient citizens. For this reason, the revised course of study 
for the primary schools lays the stress on industrial and com- 
mercial education. This is in keeping with recent develop- 
ments in education in America, Japan, the Philippine Islands, 
and the more advanced countries of Europe, especially Ger- 
many and England. 

This step does not involve the discarding of the classics al- 
together from the course of study. Classical selections are 
to be incorporated in readers and books on ethics, as selections 
from the English classics are made use of in the foreign read- 
ers. The course of study for the middle and higher schools 



New Education 177 

has not been issued, so we do not know definitely what the 
government intends to do in the higher schools, but it is prob- 
able that the Chinese classics will find a place in the course of 
study when the minds of the students are mature enough to 
understand them, just as English literature is systematically 
taught in the high school and college in America and England. 
— Fong F. Sec, Chinese Recorder, December, 1912. 

Kwangtung Province is being amply justified in the choice 
of Mr. Chung as its first officer and leader in education. 

He has made a census of the children of school age in Can- 
ton — an unheard-of thing, — has opened many new schools for 
their accommodation, and forced their attendance as far as 
possible, thereby taking many of! the streets, and removing 
some from positions of most taxing labor. 

The provincial government granted Mr. Chung and his de- 
partment $200,000 for the purpose of sending students abroad 
to study. Competitive examinations were given in July, and 
the students have now gone, under pledge to return, as teach- 
ers in this province. Many of these went to America, in- 
cluding ten from Canton Christian College. 

Opposition of a very threatening nature arose when the new 
Christian Commissioner attempted to abolish the worship of 
Confucius in the government schools of the province, but he 
held firm, at the risk of his position, and prevailed. Under his 
influence rapid advance is also being made toward complete 
religious freedom in the private schools which enjoy recogni- 
tion by the ^ government. This is interesting when compared 
with the religious requirements in the schools of Japan. 

— Canton Christian College Notes, Chinese Recorder, De- 
cember, 1912. 



RELIGIOUS CONDITIONS 



CHAPTER VI 

RELIGIOUS CONDITIONS 

Most unhappy must be a people always living in a 
thousand — a hundred thousand — fears of invisible be- 
ings which surround the path of life zvith dangers on 
every hand, at every moment, 

—J. J. M. DeGroot 

Christ is, we believe, the Sun of Righteousness, but 
in order to prepare for his complete manifestation we 
have not got to extinguish the stars which have helped 
to illumine the darkness of the non-Christian world 
and to guide seekers after truth in their search for 
God. 

— Canon C. H. Robinson 

The Three Religions. Religion in China at first 
sight seems like a composite photograph ; for the 
three religions, Confucianism, Taoism, and Budd- 
hism are superimposed, the one upon the other. 
As has often been remarked, a man may at one and 
the same time be a believer in all three. Although 
the old-fashioned scholar prides himself upon being 
solely a follower of Confucius, and pretends to de- 
spise the other cults, yet at funerals and important 
family functions, he frequently condescends to 

181 



1 82 The Emergency in China 

employ Buddhist or Taoist priests. How can we 
understand this broad eclecticism — this ability to 
hold impartially tenets of religions which appear to 
be contradictory? If we keep certain leading ideas 
in mind, perhaps what at first looks like a hopeless 
jumble may become more intelligible and will cease 
to appear so illogical. 

Primitive Religion of China. The primitive re- 
ligion of the Chinese is undoubtedly animism. The 
universe is pervaded by two spiritual forces — the 
Yang and the Yin, the former being the origin of 
heaven, light, warmth, productivity, life, and other 
helpful forces, and the latter of darkness, cold, 
death, and the earth. The Yang is subdivided into 
an indefinite number of good souls or spirits called 
Shen, and the Yin into evil spirits called Kwei. 
These Shen and Kwei animate every being and 
everything. The immaterial, ethereal, moral, and in- 
tellectual part of man's nature is his Shen, while his 
passions, vices, and lower appetites are his Kwei. 
The old religion of China is therefore both poly- 
theistic and polydemonistic. 

The Antagonistic Spirits. The two sorts of 
spirits, the Shen and the Kwei, are antagonistic to 
one another — the Shen being favorably disposed 
and the Kwei seeking to do mischief. All the ca- 
lamities, misfortunes, sicknesses, and other evils to 
which flesh is heir are the work of the Kwei. 
Heaven or Shang-ti, the Supreme Ruler, is the 
highest Shen or god, and has control over the lesser 
spirits and is able to overcome the Kwei. The ob- 



Religious Conditions 183 

ject of the worship of Heaven and the other gods 
with innumerable religious ceremonies is to obtain 
protection against the malign influences of the host 
of specters. 

Ancestral Worship. We are now in a position to 
understand ancestral worship, and the important 
place it occupies in Chinese religion. Man, being 
possessed of a Shen, is naturally immortal, and 
hence after death his spirit may be worshiped. He 
becomes one of the gods, and must be propitiated 
like the rest. It is incumbent upon the members 
of each family to worship the spirits of their own 
ancestors. The sacrifices offered to them are not, 
as some suppose, merely the projection of filial 
piety beyond the grave, but are inspired by other 
motives. As Shen, the ancestors are able to shower 
blessings down upon their descendants and to de- 
fend them from evil. If, however, the ancestral 
shades are neglected, and they become offended, 
misfortune instead of happiness will be incurred by 
those who have been remiss. From such beliefs 
have been developed the elaborate ceremonials con- 
nected with the burial and the worship of the dead. 

Conception of Tao or Universal Reason. One 
other idea must be mentioned, which colors the 
whole of Chinese religious thought. It is the con- 
ception of Tao, Universal Order or Reason. The 
relation between the Yang and the Yin and the 
whole course of nature is regulated by Tao. The 
revolution of the heavenly bodies and the return 
of the seasons is due to the same principle. When 



184 The Emergency in China 

we come to man, it becomes his highest duty to 
live in accord with Tao or the Universal Reason, 
for in this way all human relationships will become 
harmonious, and peace and order will prevail in 
nature, in government, and in society. When there 
is opposition between man and Tao all things are 
thrown into confusion. 

Confucianism. Bearing these primeval Chinese 
religious ideas in mind, we can go on to ask in 
what relationship Confucianism stands to them? 
As has often been stated, Confucius did not claim 
to be an originator, but a transmitter. His purpose 
was not to found a new religious system, but to 
conserve and hand down to posterity the ancient 
religious and moral conceptions, and for the ac- 
complishment of this purpose he devoted his ener- 
gies to gathering together the teaching of those 
who preceded him and to editing the ancient books 
of China. 

Rests Back on Earlier Ideas. His ethical system 
is based on these early religious beliefs, and when 
we refer to him as an ethical teacher and not as a 
founder of a religion we speak correctly, but per- 
haps we do not sufficiently recognize the fact that 
his moral teaching is intimately connected with the 
ancient religion of China. This is evident from the 
important place he gave to ancestral worship, and 
from his reverence for Heaven and Shang-ti, the 
supreme Shen. 

Factors of Early Belief. When we study the 
ancient literature of China, we find in the oldest 



Religious Conditions 185 

Chinese book, the Book of History, a description 
of the worship of four thousand years ago. It 
speaks of "the temple of the Accomplished Ances- 
tor, the sacrifice to the Supreme Ruler, and the 
offerings to the spirits of the hills and rivers, and 
to those presiding over mounds, dykes, plains, and 
forests, and to the spirits of the sages and worthies 
of ancient times." It is a mistake to think of the 
ancient religion of China as pure monotheism. The 
Chinese mind has always had the idea of a hier- 
archy, presided over by one head, Shang-ti, with 
numerous subordinate ranks of executive officers, 
or administrators of the different branches of the 
universe ; and a worship was paid to them all. 

Function of the Emperor. The worship of the 
Supreme Ruler practically became more and more 
restricted to the emperor. At the winter solstice 
on the Altar of Heaven in Peking, he as the high 
priest of all his people offered sacrifices to Shang- 
ti with impressive ceremonies. The common peo- 
ple confined their worship to the lesser spirits and 
their ancestors. 

Confucian View of Man's Nature. Confucius 
believed in the original purity of man's nature, and 
it was this that he endeavored to restore in the age 
in which he lived. He constantly preached the ne- 
cessity for the rectification of the heart. He held 
that all reform must begin there. When the heart 
has been rectified, then man will enter into his 
proper relations with others. When asked to state 
the whole duty of man in one word, he answered 



1 86 The Emergency in China 

that it was the word "reciprocity" and expanded 
his meaning in the Chinese golden rule, "do not do 
unto others what you would not have them do to 
you." 1 

In his development of the five relationships — 
those between prince and minister, father and son, 
husband and wife, older brother and younger 
brother, friend and friend, and in his exposition of 
the five great virtues, — Benevolence, Righteousness, 
Propriety, Wisdom, and Fidelity, — his purpose was 
to teach men to live in accord with Tao, the Uni- 
versal Order or Reason, and thus to promote 
earthly harmony and prosperity. 

Practical Defect of the System. One of the im- 
perfections of Confucianism as an ethical system is 
that it is apt to lead to self-righteousness and hy- 
pocrisy. It is similar to the pharisaical legislation 
of ancient Judea. Man by his unaided efforts thinks 
that he can aspire to become "the princely man" 
with all his virtues, and when he fails to reach this 
altitude pretends to have done so, and is eager to 
be admired as the paragon of all that is lofty and 
noble. 

Taoism. Taoism is older than Confucianism, but 
its later evolution as a religious cult of magic and 
necromancy took place after the time of the great 
sage. Its great classic, the Tao-Teh King, was 

1 Very often superficial critics speak of the similarity be- 
tween the teaching of Christ and Confucius in regard to the 
golden rule. A little reflection will show that there is a world 
of difference between the two. One inculcates active benevo- 
lence, the other the avoidance of doing harm. 



Religious Conditions 187 

written by Laotze (604 B. C). In this mystico- 
pantheistical book, in which are many things hard 
to understand, we find the same conception of Tao. 
According to its teachings the cause of all unhap- 
piness and unrest is owing to the fact that men 
have departed from Tao; that instead of following 
the law of nature, they have made for themselves 
artificial laws ; instead of passive acquiescence, they 
are full of self-assertiveness ; instead of quiescent 
inactivity, they are fond of strenuous activity. 
Laotze developed his idea in such a paradoxical 
way that his teaching was only comprehended by 
scholars, yet at the same time it must be recog- 
nized that he has influenced the serious thought of 
China to a remarkable extent. 

Animistic in Spirit. Taoism as a religious cult is 
in strict keeping with Chinese animism as mani- 
fested in its two forms, nature worship, and the wor- 
ship of the dead. Its charms, magic, and incanta- 
tions have as their object the exorcizing of evil 
spirits, and the defeating of their baleful influences. 
The strong superstition in regard to the feng-shui, 
which in the past has been one of the chief obstacles 
to progress, is nothing more nor less than the be- 
lief in evil spirits residing in wind and water. To 
change the configuration of the earth's surface in 
any way was to disturb them, and the offending 
party was sure to be visited with some misfortune. 

Buddhistic Influence. When Buddhism came in- 
to China, it threatened to undermine the hold which 
Taoism had gained on the people. As a conse- 



1 88 The Emergency in China 

quence, Taoism adopted many of the features of 
the newer cult. It borrowed from the new religion 
temples, monasteries, services, legends, and idols. 
In imitation of the Three Precious Buddhas, it set 
up its own trinity of the Three Pure Ones, and 
introduced the worship of the Gemmeous Sover- 
eign, "The Supreme Ruler." 

Taoist Burden of Demonology. Taoism has be- 
come a great curse in China because of the im- 
portant place it gives to demonology. The people 
are priest-ridden on account of their fear of the 
evil spirits, and spend their money in all sorts of 
devices to ward off their influence. Nothing can be 
done without first consulting a priest and great 
care must be used in choosing lucky days. On a 
Chinese baby's cap you will notice a small mirror, 
fastened in the front. This is a charm, for when 
the evil demons seek to harm the child, they will 
be frightened away by the reflection of their own 
hideous selves. A boy will come to school with 
an earring in one of his ears, and you will be given 
the following explanation. The priest had informed 
the parents that the evil spirits would seek to harm 
their son and advised them to outwit the demons 
by making it appear that the child is a girl. 

Burning of Paper Articles. One of the curious 
superstitions connected with Taoism is that articles 
made of paper when burnt at the side of the graves 
will turn into materials which may be made use 
of in the spirit world. It would be almost impos- 
sible to calculate the sum of money used annually 





ANCESTOR WORSHIP AT THE GRAVE 
PAPER HORSE, CART, AND SLAVES TO BURN AT THE GRAVE 

[pl88] 



Religious Conditions 189 

for purchasing paper money in connection with 
burials. 

Reasons for the Acceptance of Buddhism. Next 
we must ask how Buddhism managed to obtain 
an entrance into China. When it was introduced by 
the Emperor Ming-ti, in 62 A. D., its principal at- 
traction to the Chinese was its teaching in regard 
to the life hereafter. Confucianism and pure Tao- 
ism were silent as to the condition of the soul after 
death, and hence the people were ready to listen 
to a religion which taught them how they might 
secure future bliss and which depicted for them the 
joys of Paradise. It must be borne in mind that 
in Northern Buddhism, the form which has been 
accepted by the Chinese, little is said about Nir- 
vana, and the extinction of personal consciousness, 
but in its place the delights of the sensuous Para- 
dise have been introduced. 

Promise of Eternal Peace. The doctrine of the 
transmigration of souls was alien to Chinese 
thought, and at first it is difficult to see how it 
could be reconciled with ancestral worship, for it 
seems a little inconsistent to be worshiping the 
spirit of your ancestor and at the same time to be- 
lieve it may have become reincarnated in some ani- 
mal, for instance in a sheep or a dog. The Chinese 
have accepted the theory of metempsychosis, how- 
ever, because even if it implies a long course of 
trial and purification for the human soul, yet in the 
end it promises eternal peace. 

Polytheism No Barrier. It was easy to add the 



190 The Emergency in China 

Buddhist deities to the already extensive pantheon, 
and the Chinese will worship Buddhist or Taoist 
gods indiscriminately, and with the same satisfac- 
tion. 

Goddess of Mercy. Other reasons might be men- 
tioned to account for the popularity of Buddhism, 
especially the appeal to the heart and the affections 
made by such a deity as the goddess of Mercy. 
The attitude of the Chinese toward her is similar 
to that of Roman Catholics toward the Virgin 
Mary. The writer recalls seeing a Buddhist priest 
in one of the temples on the sacred island of Poo- 
too, near Ningpo, whose arm was tattooed with an 
inscription in Latin to the Mother of Christ. The 
man was evidently a renegade Roman Catholic; 
and when asked why he was serving in a Buddhist 
temple, pointed to the image of the goddess of 
Mercy and replied that she was identical with the 
Queen of Heaven. 

Christian Points of Contact. Such then in out- 
line are some of the religious notions of the Chi- 
nese, and the missionary does well to have some 
clear idea in regard to them, when he comes preach- 
ing his message of salvation in Jesus Christ. He 
will find points of contact, and at the same time he 
will find conceptions that are erroneous but most 
difficult to eradicate, as for instance ancestral wor- 
ship. DeGroot says: "It is for Christianity impos- 
sible to tolerate ancestral worship, almost as im- 
possible as it is for a Chinaman to renounce it." 

Modification of Religious Conceptions. The new 



Religious Conditions 191 

forces making themselves felt in China since the 
impact of Western civilization upon the East have 
necessarily had a great influence in the way of 
modifying religious conceptions. The spread of a 
knowledge of science brings in new ideas in regard 
to nature. Instead of a world ruled by countless 
spirits and demons, there comes the notion of the 
reign of law, and polytheism and polydemonism are 
rudely shaken. 

Influence of Evolutionary Views. The theory of 
evolution has been readily accepted, for it fits in 
after a fashion with the crude notion of everything 
being a development of the two principles, the 
Yang and the Yin. The orthodox commentary on 
the Chinese classics, written by Chu Hsi, makes 
Heaven impersonal reason, and thus prepares the 
way for agnosticism. Such books as Evolution and 
Ethics by Huxley, The Origin of Species by Dar- 
win, The Principles of Sociology by Spencer have 
been translated into Chinese and are widely read. 
The new magazines which now circulate through- 
out the country contain articles full of terms taken 
from the vocabulary of evolution, and the educated 
Chinese constantly talk about "the struggle for ex- 
istence" and "the survival of the fittest." The 
problem of the Christian missionary in China to- 
day consists not only in dealing with the religious 
ideas of Confucianism, Buddhism, and Taoism, but 
in meeting and combating the agnosticism and 
rationalism of the West in their new Eastern garb. 

Japanese Medium. Much of this Western 



192 The Emergency in China 

thought comes in through the medium of Japan. 
As is well known, the Japanese are unwearying 
translators of Western books. "Chinese students 
can read Japanese works after six months' study of 
grammar, the written characters of one language 
having been borrowed from the older country." 
Japan to-day stands in grave danger of being over- 
whelmed by the philosophy of materialism, and 
China is only too apt to meet with the same fate. 

Practical Aspects of Speculation. An interesting 
article written by Dr. Lin Boon King appeared a 
short time ago in the World's Chinese Students' 
Journal. The subject was "Confucian Cosmogony 
and Theism," and the writer's object was to prove 
that the former was more in keeping with modern 
scientific ideas than the latter. Students in mission 
schools are influenced by agnostic literature, and 
begin to do what they never did before — object to 
the supernatural element in Christianity. Some of 
them will frankly confess that the doctrine of the 
incarnation, and the resurrection of Christ are 
stumbling-blocks in the way of their accepting the 
Christian religion. At present the great mass of 
the people have not become acquainted with these 
new ideas, but one wonders what will be the result 
when they become current throughout the whole 
nation. 

Christianity and Ancestral Worship. Ancestral 
worship has been called the Rock of Gibraltar in 
the Chinese religious system. Caste in India and 
ancestral worship in China have stood out as the 



Religious Conditions 193 

two almost impregnable fortresses. So impossible 
has it seemed to persuade the Chinese to abandon 
the worship of the dead that some have advocated 
a policy of compromise. They have tried to show 
that it was not necessarily idolatrous, and that it 
might be modified in such a way as to make it 
consistent with Christianity. We will not enter 
here into a lengthy argument, but will simply call 
attention to the significant fact that no Christian 
Chinese has ever come forward in defense of an- 
cestral worship. He is firmly convinced that an- 
cestral worship and the worship of Almighty God 
are utterly incompatible with one another. Pro- 
fessor Giles, of Cambridge University, says : "I feel 
bound to say that in my opinion these ancestral ob- 
servances can only be regarded, strictly speaking, 
as worship and nothing else." 

Individualism Subverting Ancestral Worship. 
The introduction of Western thought is slowly 
undermining ancestral worship, and in that w r ay 
is proving a powerful auxiliary to missionary work. 
The West advocates the development of the indi- 
vidual and individual rights, the East emphasizes 
the importance of the family, the clan, and the race. 
An Oriental never acted simply as an individual 
unit, but his own individuality was merged in a 
larger whole. Xow there has come the stirring of 
individualism, and it has caused a tremendous re- 
action against the old idea of solidarity and sub- 
mission to the will of the family. Sometimes we 
see instances of individualism run mad, and filial 



194 The Emergency in China 

piety, the greatest of the virtues in China, is thrown 
to the winds — the individual claiming the right to 
be his own master without regard to the wishes of 
any one. The following example of the new spirit 
is worth quoting. A father wrote to his son at 
school, admonishing him for some misconduct. The 
son replied to the following effect: "You are an 
individual and so am I. As two individuals our 
opinions are worthy of equal consideration, and I 
see no reason why I should forego my own opinion 
in favor of yours." 

Need of a Freeing Influence. Although ancestral 
worship has had some beneficial results, yet we 
must recognize the fact that the old cult has been 
a dead hand, arresting progress, for it teaches that 
a man must follow the wishes of his parents and 
grandparents after they are dead as much as when 
they were alive. It will be sad if extreme individ- 
ualism entirely destroys the old conception of fam- 
ily solidarity, yet at the same time we must recog- 
nize that it was absolutely necessary that some cor- 
rective should be introduced to modify ideas which 
were holding China enchained in the bonds of con- 
servatism. The weakening of the hold of ancestral 
worship on the minds of the Chinese will remove 
one of the great hindrances to the acceptance of 
the gospel of Christ. Tyler, in his book on Primi- 
tive Culture, says : "Interesting problems are opened 
out to the Western mind by the spectacle of a 
great people who for thousands of years have 
been seeking the living among the dead. Nowhere 



Religious Conditions 195 

is the connection between parental authority and 
conservatism more graphically shown. The wor- 
ship of ancestors, begun during their life, is not in- 
terrupted but intensified when death makes them 
deities. The Chinese, prostrate bodily and mentally 
before the memorial tablets which contain the souls 
of his ancestors, little thinks that he is all the while 
proving to mankind how vast a power unlimited 
filial obedience, prohibiting change from ancestral 
institutions, may exert in stopping the advance of 
civilization/' 

Analysis of Religious Situation. In a transition 
period like the present, it is difficult to give a com- 
plete and satisfactory analysis of the present re- 
ligious situation. We shall endeavor to point out 
however some of the currents of thought existing 
among the educated classes. 

Spread of Materialistic Philosophy. In the first 
place, there are some who are out and out material- 
ists. They consider that it is a great mistake to 
bother about religion at all. They are content with 
materialistic philosophy and believe that the means 
of material development is all that China needs to 
learn from the West. They ignore entirely the 
higher thought and the deepest principles of West- 
ern civilization, and despise the Christian religion. 
As an example of a nation becoming powerful with- 
out accepting Christianity, they point to the won- 
derful career of Japan. To their minds religion only 
promotes confusion and engenders useless discus- 
sion. Scientific positivism is looked upon as the cure 



196 The Emergency in China 

for all of China's trouble, and all religions alike, 
their own and that of the West, they regard as idle 
superstitions. Such views are often advocated in 
magazine articles and are exerting a profound influ- 
ence upon the minds of the young. We would not 
be alarmists, but we cannot fail to see that one of 
the gravest dangers in connection with the future 
civilization of the world lies in the possibility of the 
impact of the West upon the East resulting in the 
spread of materialistic thought throughout the 
East. 

Neo-Confucianism. Secondly, there are those 
who are strongly of the opinion that what is needed 
is the revival of Confucianism. The late Empress 
Dowager shortly before her death issued an edict 
raising Confucius to the status of a god, and en- 
joining that he should be worshiped with rites and 
ceremonies equal to those used in the worship of 
Heaven and Earth. This deification of the ancient 
sage and philosopher did not altogether commend 
itself to the literati, for they preferred to regard him 
with the greatest reverence as the teacher of all 
under heaven, but did not care to see him exalted 
to a position which he himself never claimed. 

Reasons for the Revival. There is however a 
strong desire to revive Confucianism. "The official 
world sees in it a sufficient moral and religious code 
for the education of Chinese youth and does not 
show any special interest in any other forms of 
belief.'' Neo-Confucianism is interpreted very lib- 
erally. "They see that although human nature is 



Religious Conditions 197 

ever the same, subject to the same moral duties 
and requirements, the conditions of life are always 
changing, and to them the forms and practises of 
government have to be adjusted. . . . The leaders 
of the movement seek to apply Confucian thought 
in the light of their own experience, and with refer- 
ence to the present needs of China." 1 

Predictions. Ku Hung-ming, a brilliant writer, 
calls the movement for the conservation of Confu- 
cianism "the Chinese Oxford Movement," and pre- 
dicts that "Confucianism with its way of the supe- 
rior man, little as the Englishman suspects, will one 
day change the social order and break up the civili- 
zation of Europe." Confucianism is naturally a 
rallying-point for patriots and conservatives too 
proud to accept a foreign religion, and for genera- 
tions it will be a strong center of resistance. 

Writings of Wang Yang-ming. The Confucian 
revival has brought about the renewed study of 
the writings of Wang Yang-ming, a great writer 
who flourished in the Ming dynasty. He points out 
that "the life of contemplation must be supple- 
mented by the life of action, and it is this call to 
action that is so stirring to the contemporary 
Oriental world." 

Tract Claims. Tracts are published exhorting* 
the people of China to return to the true teaching* 
of the great sage. We have read one which puts 
the argument in this way. The present disorder in 

1 Paul S. Reinsch, Intellectual and Political Currents in the 
Far East, 151. 



198 The Emergency in China 

China is caused by the want of harmony between the 
Yang and the Yin. If all men will follow the moral 
laws as expounded by Confucius, then in regard to 
society the harmony between these two great prin- 
ciples will be reestablished. That in turn will 
exert a potent influence over physical forces, and 
harmony will be brought about in the realm of 
nature. When that has been accomplished, the 
seasons will be regular, the rains will fall at the 
proper times, and the harvests will be abundant. 
As a consequence the poverty of China will be re- 
lieved and the country will become once more a 
strong and flourishing nation, and the day of humil- 
iation will have passed. 

Currents of the Changing Order. The vigorous 
attempt to resuscitate the old cult shows on the 
one hand that the Chinese are seeking for a national 
religion, and on the other is an evidence that they 
fear the advances of Christianity. As we have 
stated more than once, many of China's greatest 
men dread the spread of materialistic ideas and ad- 
vocate the retention of Confucian teaching so that 
the things of the spirit shall not be entirely ne- 
glected. 

Revival of Buddhism. In the third place, there 
has been an attempt, though not on a large scale, 
to bring about a revival of Buddhism. Tan Sze- 
tong, one of the reformers of 1898 who was exe- 
cuted by the order of the late Empress Dowager, 
published a book called Benevolence, in which he 
compares the relative merits of the three religions, 



Religious Conditions 199 

Christianity, Confucianism, and Buddhism. "He 
regarded Buddhism as the best in theory and easiest 
in application." Chang Pin-lin, the editor of the 
principal revolutionary organ, The People, is a 
strong advocate of Buddhism. He is convinced 
that the chief need of China in the present crisis is 
strong religious feeling, and he believes that it can 
be engendered by this Oriental religion. Buddhist 
missionaries have come over from Japan to help in 
the work of spreading the higher elements of Bud- 
dhist philosophy. 

Elements of Strength and Weakness. To some it 
seems as if the cult was so loaded down with idol- 
worship and so debased by superstition that it will 
be impossible to resuscitate it. But others hold 
that a new era has begun for Buddhism, not only 
in southern Asia, but also in China and Japan. 
It is certainly significant that among the most 
prominent national leaders in China at the present 
day we find those who accept Buddhism and 
strongly urge its adoption. The Chinese are not, 
however, a metaphysical people. Buddhism as a 
practical system for avoiding future punishments 
and obtaining future rewards has commended itself 
to them, but only a few scholars are able to follow 
its abstruse speculations. 

Eclecticism. Fourthly, we must refer to ten- 
dencies toward eclecticism. In Japan, as we know, 
there are those "who would fain amalgamate with 
Christianity the strong points of Shinto, Buddhism, 
and Confucianism, making of the whole a rich mo- 



200 The Emergency in China 

saic," and there is a similar school of thought in 
China. Already we meet with a cult that calls 
itself Confucio-Christianity. In Shanghai there is 
quite a strong movement in this direction and a 
society has been formed called the World's Re- 
ligions Society. The object of the founders is to 
cull from each religion its highest teaching and 
make a compound which will be superior to all. 
As in the past, attempts of such a character w T ill 
appeal to a certain proportion of the enlightened 
classes, but will prove powerless to exert a strong 
influence on the minds of the people as a whole. 
No eclectic religion, as history teaches, has ever 
been able to sway the hearts and mold the lives of 
the masses. 

Iconoclastic Tendencies. In connection with the 
recent revolution there has been a good deal of 
iconoclasm, just as there was in the days of the 
Taiping Rebellion. In many places temples have 
been sacked, and the gods pulled down from their 
places. The idols and the representations of the 
halls of purgatory found in Buddhist temples have 
been smashed into pieces and burned in bonfires. 
The idolatry connected with Buddhism and Taoism 
has little chance to withstand the onslaught of 
the new scientific ideas. Popular Buddhism and 
Taoism command but little respect. The lives of 
many of the monks are known to be immoral. The 
monasteries are regarded as refuges of an idle and 
vicious class. The people are no longer willing to 
be held in bondage by the fear and superstitions 











TEMPLE CONVERTED INTO CHRISTIAN SCHOOL 
TEMPLE CONVERTED INTO GOVERNMENT SCHOOL 



[p 200] 



Religious Conditions 201 

which it is the business of these men to keep alive. 

Attitude toward Christianity. It would not be 
correct to say that there is a national movement 
toward Christianity in China, but it is quite possi- 
ble that before long there may be such, for there 
are many signs of increased interest in the teach- 
ings of Christ. The Chinese perceive the practical 
results of Christianity, and they argue that the 
greatness of the powerful nations of the West must 
in some measure be due to the religion they have 
adopted. This leads them to inquire whether its 
acceptance by the Chinese might not prove benefi- 
cial. They are seeking to make their nation strong, 
and are willing to examine into the claims of a re- 
ligion which has proved a blessing to mankind. A 
short time ago a grandson of the Marquis Tseng, 
who was one of the great generals on the imperial 
side in the Taiping Rebellion, published a tract ad- 
vocating the adoption of the Christian religion. 
Although not himself a member of the Christian 
Church, he adduced the following arguments in 
support of such a course: Christianity inculcates 
the principles of liberty, and deliverance from all 
fear, as is evidenced by the courage of Christ who 
freely gave up his life for the sake of his country- 
men. He holds up Jesus Christ as a great inspira- 
tion to patriotism. 

Growing Spirit of Investigation. The blind hos- 
tility and indifference toward the Christian religion 
are giving place to the spirit of investigation. Many 
are seeking to understand it and are diligently 



202 The Emergency in China 

reading the New Testament. It is significant to 
note that among the Chinese students in Japan 
quite a large number have been converted to Chris- 
tianity. The fact that all these Christians were in 
entire sympathy with the aims of the revolution, 
and that many of them have played an influential 
part in the establishment of the new government 
has made the religion they profess more popular 
and brought it into greater prominence. In the 
city of Yangchow, General Hsu, who after the 
revolution acted as the Chief Magistrate, although 
not a Christian invited missionaries to come and 
preach to his officers and soldiers. At meetings 
held in a large theater he presided while preachers 
held forth to audiences of 1,500 men. Such an oc- 
currence was unheard of in the days of the Manchu 
dynasty. 

Religious Toleration. In endeavoring to give 
some account of the currents of religious thought 
in China at the present time, mention should be 
made of the growth of the spirit of tolerance. 
Formerly the question was often asked as to 
whether the Chinese were tolerant or intolerant in 
regard to religion. Two diametrically opposite 
opinions have been held. Prof. E. H. Parker holds 
that they have been distinguished by their liberality 
toward all religions, while Dr. DeGroot contends 
that they have been characterized by a spirit of in- 
tolerance, and quotes in support of his position the 
frequent persecution of Buddhism and Mohamme- 
danism. The truth would appear to be that the Chi- 



Religious Conditions 203 

nese have been tolerant of religious opinions just 
in so far as they have not interfered with the in- 
ternal government of the country, and have not 
been in opposition to any national observances. 
Whenever they have seemed to exert a disturbing 
influence on national institutions or social customs, 
great resentment has been aroused, and persecution 
has become the order of the day. We believe that 
the hostile attitude toward Christianity which has 
been manifested from time to time has always been 
caused by the fear that the Christian Church was 
establishing a foreign government within the gov- 
ernment. Christianity has been resisted from po- 
litical more than from religious motives. 

Missionary Interference. In the past there has 
been so little justice in Chinese courts that the mis- 
sionary was tempted to interfere on behalf of his 
converts. Enjoying the rights of extraterritoriality 
himself, he was inclined to stretch his privilege so 
as to make it extend to those who come under his 
pastoral care. This, of course, antagonized Chinese 
officialdom. 

Mistaken Policy. As is well known, the Roman 
Catholic Church was for a long time under the spe- 
cial protection of the French government and in 
its propaganda it was helped by the pressure which 
could be brought to bear by the French minister on 
the court at Peking. Whenever a Roman Catholic 
convert got into trouble, the local priest almost in- 
variably espoused his cause. If the local magis- 
trate decided the case unfavorably, the priest ap- 



204 The Emergency in China 

pealed to the minister in Peking, who in turn 
brought pressure to bear at the capital which led 
to the official being reprimanded or deposed. The 
Protestant missionaries were not entirely innocent 
of such methods. Although not supported by their 
governments to the same extent as the Roman 
Catholic missionaries were by the French govern- 
ment, yet sometimes they took advantage of their 
own special privileges to persuade the Chinese mag- 
istrates to do justice to their converts. Missiona- 
ries who acted in this way were guided by pure mo- 
tives, believing that only in this way could they 
secure fair treatment. Naturally they thought their 
converts were the innocent parties. We can easily 
see that it was a mistaken policy and resulted in 
more harm than good. Mr. H. B. Morse says: 
When the missionary, far in the interior, many 
miles from the observing eyes of his consul, trans- 
fers a corner of his protecting cloak to his poor 
Chinese convert, he may be doing what is right, but 
it is not lawful; and that is the naked fact under- 
lying many an episode leading to a riot." This 
disagreeable chapter of the history of missions we 
believe has now been finally closed, and Christianity 
will no longer be unpopular because of the prev- 
alent belief that it was a foreign religion, and that 
it gave the protection of foreign governments to its 
converts. 

Popular Place of Christianity. Christianity has 
become popular. The leader of the revolution, Dr. 
Sun Yat-sen, is a Christian, and many of those who 



Religious Conditions 205 

took a leading part in the establishment of the new 
government were members of the Christian Church. 
In the appointment to posts of honor at the present 
time no discrimination is made between Christians 
and non-Christians. The new minister to Germany, 
Dr. W. W. Yen, is an avowed Christian. The old 
mischievous distinction between the people of the 
Kingdom and the people of the Church is no longer 
heard and all have become brothers in one republic. 

Policy of New Government. One of the great 
benefits arising out of the revolution is the promise 
of complete religious toleration. Yuan Shih-kai 
has assured the representatives of the Christian 
Church that the new government will adopt the 
most liberal policy in regard to religion. We be- 
lieve that all disabilities under which Christians 
now labor will be removed, and that the question 
of religion will be finally removed from politics. 
The example of the United States has been a great 
influence over the minds of the republican leaders, 
and we may expect that the same enlightened atti- 
tude will be taken in regard to the relation between 
Church and state. No religion should be supported 
by the government, but as President Taft has aptly 
said, all religions and all churches which influence 
people to virtuous living should be entitled to full 
liberty. 

The Crisis. From this brief review, it will ap- 
pear that during the present critical period the 
Christian Church will be called upon to face man)*- 
problems. The old religions are losing their hold. 



206 The Emergency in China 

On the one hand, attempts are being made to resus- 
citate them into new life; and on the other, a wave 
of materialistic thought is spreading rapidly. The 
opportunity for winning China to Christ is greater 
than ever before. Many are seeking for the truth 
and realize that China's greatest need is a spiritual 
and moral reformation. The old religions are pow- 
erless. Their strength has been exhausted and they 
cannot furnish the new spiritual dynamic. The at- 
tempt to reestablish them will result in as great a 
failure as that of Julian the Apostate in the later 
Roman Empire. The religion of Christ is the up- 
lifting power wanted by China. Surely at such a 
time a supreme effort should be made to spread 
the religion of the Christ who said, "I am the way, 
the truth, and the life," — the religion which was in- 
tended by its Founder to be universal, and which 
alone can satisfy the religious longings of the hu- 
man race. 

IMPORTANT QUOTATIONS 

There is, indeed, in the Chinese system no god beyond the 
cosmos, no maker of it, no Yahweh, no Allah. Creation is 
simply the yearly renovation of nature, the spontaneous work 
of heaven and earth, repeating itself in every revolution of 
the Tao. . . . 

Belief in the existence of the evil spirits is a main induce- 
ment to the worship and propitiation of heaven, to the end that 
it may withhold its avenging kwei. All the shen or gods, 
being parts of the Yang, are the natural enemies of the kwei, 
because these are the constituents of the Yin; indeed, the 
Yang and the Yin are in perpetual conflict, manifested by 
alternation of day and night, summer and winter, heat and 
cold. The purpose of the worship and propitiation of the gods 
is to induce them to defend man against the world of evil 
spirits, or, by descending and living among men, to drive 



Religious Conditions 207 

those spirits away by their overawing presence. That cult in 
fact means invocation of happiness ; but happiness simply 
means absence of misfortune which the demons bring. Idol- 
atry in China means the disarming of demons by means of 
the gods. 

The belief in a world of devils, which are of high influence 
upon man, is in China's religion even more than a basis; it is 
a principal pillar in the building of morality. 

The Tao or order of the universe, which is the yearly mu- 
tation of the Yang and the Yin, is perfectly just and impartial 
to all men, producing and protecting them all in the same 
manner. Heaven, the Yang itself, by means of the gods re- 
wards the good, and by means of the demons punishes the bad, 
with perfect justice. There is, accordingly, in this world no 
felicity but for the good. . . . 

The excellence of the man who assimilates his life and 
conduct with the Tao is preached by the Yih king in the fol- 
lowing expressive terms : 

"Yes, the great man is he who assimilates his virtues with 
those of heaven and earth, his intellect with the sun and moon, 
his rules of conduct with the four seasons, his fortunes and 
misfortunes with the kwei and the shen. He behaves in ad- 
vance of heaven (that is, he conforms to it by timely initia- 
tive), and consequently heaven does not go against him; he 
follows heaven and thus reverently adapts his conduct to the 
four seasons, and so heaven again does not go against him; 
how much less will men go against him, and how much less 
will the kwei and the shen do so." . . . 

Extraordinary terrestrial phenomena, interpreted as de- 
rangements of the Tao, have been officially observed and re- 
corded in China by thousands. Observers and interpreters 
started from the principle that any motion in the ground por- 
tended evil, since the normal nature of earth is stability. . . . 

Much more might be written about this pretended science, 
whose father is religious awe of the majesty and works of 
the divine universe and its gods, and its mother human selfish- 
ness, desirous of utilizing artificially the universe for worldly 
profit. It is for this reason a hybrid monster, which destroys 
the mental quiet of thousands and thousands of conscientious 
men, tormenting them with anxious thoughts about their fu- 
ture and their offspring, and constraining them to impoverish 
themselves for the profit of geomancers, grave-brokers, and 
land-owners. It disturbs domestic peace, disseminating dis- 
cord even among brothers, and m animosity between families, 
clans, and villages. It causes ruin of many families, wasting 
their means on the pretext of creating fortunes. It is an ob- 



208 The Emergency in China 

stacle to all sorts of enterprise which might be of the greatest 
advantage to the people. . . . 

It represents the highest level to which mental culture has 
been able to rise in China, within the bonds of a classical 
orthodoxy, precluding all science of another order. The only- 
power that can explode it is sound science, based on an ex- 
perimental and mathematical investigation^ of the laws of 
nature. But such science is only just born in China. Should 
there come a time when it is seriously cultivated there, then, 
no doubt, a complete revolution in its religion, philosophy, 
ethics, literature, political institutions, and customs will take 
place: a process by which China must be either thoroughly 
disorganized and ruined, or reborn and regenerated. . . . 

Can such a civilization, so strong, so tenacious, so deep- 
rooted, be sapped without resistance? China has no second 
system ready to put in the place of the old system. The 
death of the old must, accordingly, mean total disorganization, 
anarchy, destruction — the fullest realization, in short, of her 
own holy doctrine that, when man loses the Tao, catastrophe 
and ruin are inevitable. 

— J. J. M. De Groot, Religion in China. 

Definite Statements Concerning Jesus Christ by Chinese 

Mullahs 

"Jesus was an apostle sent by God, but his ministry was 
inferior, and confined to certain limits : he was an apostle 
limited by weakness." 

"Jesus was not the Son of God, nor did he die on the cross. 
The proof of this we have in the Koran : They slew him not, 
and they crucified him not; they had only his likeness/ Jesus 
foretold the coming of another; he was not the one indicated, 
but his predecessor: our prophet, Mohammed, was the one 
indicated, and there is no doubt that the^ one indicated is 
greater than he who indicates him. Thus it is evident that 
Mohammed was greater than Jesus — they were not even of 
equal rank — and whoever thinks the reverse is an infidel, and 
gives the lie to the revelations of God. Both Mohammed and 
Jesus were given miracles : to Jesus, the raising of the dead ; 
healing sicknesses beyond the power of a physician; knowl- 
edge of the unseen, etc.; but it was by the help of the seal 
(last) of the prophets — who, without doubt, was our Moham- 
med. At the day of judgment, after other prophets have been 
asked to intercede, and have each definitely refused (Jesus 
being among the number), the prophet Mohammed will be 
asked, and will consent to intercede, and his intercession will 
be accepted. When I grasp all these proofs, all imagination 



Religious Conditions 209 

that Jesus was the Son of God is put far from me ! Jesus was 
merely a preacher of the coming of Mohammed and his re- 
ligion. At the last day, he will return to this world, become a 
Moslem, and enter into the bond of marriage." 
— F. Herbert Rhodes, Chinese Recorder, February, 1913. 

The first few Mohammedan services which I attended made 
a deep impression upon me. They are so simple and dignified ; 
the mosques are so clean and orderly and free from tinsel, 
that the contrast with the Buddhist and Taoist temples and 
services is refreshing. They were the first non-Christian reli- 
gious services I had ever attended that commanded my respect 
and stirred within me the spirit of prayer. But I have since 
come to know that not one in ten of the worshipers under- 
stands what is being said, as it is all in Arabic; and many of 
my pleasant impressions have been dissipated since I knew 
that the worshipers did not worship God with their whole 
mind or indeed with their intellect at all. In only one service 
have I ever heard any exposition in Chinese, though every- 
where they have assured me that at times they do have preach- 
ing in the vernacular. 

— W. B. Pettus, Chinese Recorder, February, 1913. 

By means of polygamy, early marriages and the interde- 
pendence of clans, the Chinese people struggle to fulfil at all 
costs the inexorable demands of their patriarchal system; 
bringing their predestined victims of hunger and disease into 
a world that has no room for them; breeding up to a food- 
limit which, amidst toil and penury incredible, has long since 
reached the breaking point. A nation which implicitly be- 
lieves, and unanimously acts on the belief, that a man's first 
duty in life is to provide as many male heirs as possible for 
the comfort of himself and his ancestors, inevitably condemns 
vast masses of its people to the lowest depths of poverty, 
and condemns the body politic to regularly recurring cata- 
clysms. . . . 

Even supposing that, by good government, the conditions of 
life were to be alleviated for the masses, that by economic 
reforms and applied science the resources of the country might 
be materially increased, it is clear that, for a people which rears 
four generations while Europe is rearing three, with whom 
the absence of posterity is a crime and concubinage the re- 
ward of success, any relief would be temporary — the funda- 
mental problem deferred, not solved. 

— J. O. P. Bland, Recent Events and Present Policies in 
China. 



210 The Emergency in China 

The subjoined mandate appeared on September 20: 
The ex-Resident General Huang Hsing has in a telegram 
rightly pointed out the fact that, owing to the establishment 
of the republic and the sudden influx of new ideas and ideals 
into China, many thoughtless and frivolous people have mis- 
construed the meaning of the terms republicanism, liberty, and 
equality. As a result, the well-established traditions and the 
fundamental principles of China have not been well observed. 
For the purpose of maintaining our standard of morality and 
the practise of good ancient traditions, General Huang Hsing 
urges that the eight cardinal virtues of China— filial piety, 
brotherliness, loyalty, faithfulness, politeness, righteousness, 
honesty, and sense of shame — should be emphasized and be 
brought to the people's mind Good principles and morality 
are the same all the worM over. The change of a govern- 
mental system should certainly not be taken as a warrant to 
depart from the well-established ethical principles of morality. 
Nowadays, agitated by the great political changes made in our 
country, many seekers of foreign ideas who have failed to 
grasp the real spirit of Western sciences and who have simply 
been impressed by its material progress, begin to depreciate 
the great moral principles of our nation which have been 
handed down for hundreds of generations. I am well con- 
vinced of the fact that no nation can be called civilized with- 
out making the eight great virtues the basis of its government. 
I, the President, firmly maintain that the great danger of to- 
day is not in the material weakness of our nation, but in the 
condition of the human heart. If every person has his heart 
turned toward good, the country will be set on a firm founda- 
tion. May the citizens of the republic heed this exhortation ! 

— China Year Book, 1913. 

We have lately seen a circular issued in the interests of 
"The Universal Interrelation of Religions. ,, A belief in the 
Sabbath is indicated on the sheet, and it is stated that, "One 
principle underlies all law, and the myriad virtues have a 
common center." Following this, come quotations from the 
Confucian, Taoist, and Buddhist classics, the whole ending 
with the Lord's prayer. The circular is being used by cer- 
tain persons who believe that identical ideas are fundamental 
to all religions, and that the faiths mentioned are not antag- 
onistic, but kindred to each other. 

There is little doubt that the revival of these Oriental faiths 
is due to their contact with Christianity. As the dead Midian- 
ite revived when he was thrown into the tomb and his body 
touched the bones of the prophet Elisha, so these dead and 



Religious Conditions 211 

dying faiths have been revivified by the quickening influence of 
Christianity. Scholars tell us that in the first century of our 
era Buddhism was already a spent force^ but the fructifying 
tide of the religion of Jesus flowed over its sterile fields and 
caused them to blossom once more. Do we not see the same 
phenomena repeated in these last days? Buddhism readjusted 
itself so that it absorbed the Christianity it met with in the 
first century A. D. Is Christianity virile enough to absorb 
Buddhism in the twentieth? 

— Editorial in the Chinese Recorder, June, 1912. 

All down through the years of missionary work in China, 
official disapproval has been the root from which general sus- 
picion and active opposition have sprung. When the emperor, 
the viceroys, the magistrates and scholars branded the Chris- 
tian doctrine as bad and inimical to the state, what could the 
people do but try to drive it out? Now, with Christians hold- 
ing high office in the state and taking a full share in local 
government, and with the president's approval of the doctrine 
itself, church-members will no longer be considered a separate 
class or as denationalized Chinese who have placed themselves 
under foreign protection. The gain is immense. For surely 
it means that the Christian message will receive a better hear- 
ing, the Christian Church will gain a new standing, and the 
Christian school will have a wider influence. 

— Rev. G. H. Bondfield, Chinese Recorder, January, 1913. 

Another sign of the times is the popular recognition of the 
Christian religion as one of the religions of China. During 
the last few days there has been a striking example of this. 
The Buddhists, Taoists, and Confucianists — not to speak of a 
new Universal Religion — are seeking to reorganize themselves 
into great Chinese Churches. The Buddhists and Taoists 
have just held their opening ceremonies. Delegates were spe- 
cially invited from each section of the community, and, among 
others, the Christian churches were invited to send repre- 
sentatives. The significance of this is the recognition of 
Christianity as one of the Chinese national religions by the 
members of the other religions. One Buddhist priest spoke of 
the way in which Christianity had spread and become a world 
religion; and also of how it was engaged in good works, such 
as teaching and healing, and that in this it was an example to 
themselves. This popular recognition seems to clear the way 
for mass movements of the people toward Christ, and for the 
inclusion of all classes. 

— W. Macnaughton, Chinese Recorder, January, 191 3. 



THE INFLUENCE OF CHRISTIANITY 



CHAPTER VII 

THE INFLUENCE OF CHRISTIANITY 

And he showed me a river of water of life, bright 
as crystal, proceeding out of the throne of God and 
of the Lamb, in the midst of the street thereof, and 
on this side of the river and on that was the tree of 
life, bearing twelve manner of fruits, yielding its fruit 
every month; and the leaves of the tree were for the 
healing of the nations. 

— Revelation xxii. I, 2 

It is interesting to inquire how far Christianity- 
has been a factor in the production of the new 
China ? 

Causes of Awakening of China. There is a pecu- 
liar verse in the Book of Revelation which clings 
to the memory — "the earth helped the woman." 
It might be interpreted as meaning that in God's 
providence world forces are often used for the ad- 
vancement of the interests of the Church, and to 
help in the extension of the Kingdom. Such un- 
doubtedly has been the case in China. The awak- 
ening of China, the break-up of the old conserva- 
tism, and the throwing of everything into solution 
has been due to many causes, among which the fol- 
lowing stand out in bold relief: 1. The fear of fur- 

215 



216 The Emergency in China 

ther foreign aggression; 2. The impact of the West 
on the East; 3. The startling example of progress 
in Japan; 4. The better knowledge of Westerners 
and Western civilization; and, 5. Foreign com- 
merce. In regard to the last-mentioned, Kipling 
somewhere compares the plying of merchant ves- 
sels between the Western and Eastern hemispheres 
to the flying shuttle weaving the warp and the woof 
together into a world-wide industrial brotherhood. 
These forces have compelled China to come forth 
from her age-long isolation and to enter into the 
comity of nations. Still, the analysis of the causes 
producing the change would be incomplete if we 
failed to recognize that the Christian religion has 
been one of the main factors. 

Statistics Unsatisfactory. Let us state as em- 
phatically as we can that the attempt to measure 
the results of Christian missions by the number of 
converts is unsatisfactory and misleading. We do 
not mean that statistics are not a criterion of prog- 
ress to which we are forced to resort, but that 
the influences of Christianity are wider and more 
far-reaching than is shown by the actual number 
of accessions to the Christian Church. As Profes- 
sor E. A. Ross says, "Now, the truth is, that, in 
the very nature of the case, by far the larger part 
of their accomplishment can never be claimed by the 
missionaries as their own. They dig the well, and 
toil at the windlass, but the waters they raise do 
not flow in an open conduit to the fields they 
quicken. Most of them disappear in the ground, 



The Influence of Christianity 217 

and when they reappear to make distant wastes 
bloom they cannot be identified. What of the 
young men leaving the mission colleges uncon- 
verted, yet imbued with Christian ideals? What 
of the bracing effect on the government schools of 
competition with the well-managed and efficient 
mission schools? What of the government schools 
for girls, which would never have been provided if 
the missionaries had not created a demand for fe- 
male education, and shown how to teach girls? 
What of the native philanthropies which have 
sprung up in emulation of the mission care for the 
blind, the insane, and the leper? What of the un- 
traceable influence of the Western books of in- 
spiration and learning which, but for the missionary 
translators, would not yet be accessible to the Chi- 
nese mind? Among Chinese who neither know nor 
care for the 'J esus religion/ the changes of attitude 
toward opium-smoking, foot-binding, concubinage, 
slavery, 'squeeze/ torture, and the subjection of 
women, betray currents of opinions set in motion 
largely by the labors of missionaries." 1 

Mission Period. Let us look at this a little more 
in detail. Modern Christian missions in China date 
back about three centuries to the coming of the 
Jesuit missionaries of the Roman Catholic Church, 
and started with the effort of Francis Xavier to 
break open the rock that seemed so adamantine. 
Protestant missions began about a hundred years 
ago with the arrival of Robert Morrison, in 1807. 
1 E. A. Ross, The Changing Chinese, 245. 



218 The Emergency in China 

Thus then there have been altogether three cen- 
turies of influence. During that period of time the 
tree has been bearing leaves for the healing of the 
nation. 

Intellectual Enlightenment. In the first place, 
Christianity has brought intellectual enlightenment. 
Everywhere the missionary has gone he has 
founded schools. He has struggled to exorcize the 
demon of superstition and fear from the minds of 
the people, and replace them by the spirit of light 
and truth. As is well known, the early Roman 
Catholic missionaries did much in the translation 
of books of science and mathematics, and for a time 
won the favor of the court by their superior intel- 
lectual attainments. The educational activity of 
Roman Catholic missionaries has never been as 
wide and free as that of Protestant Christianity, 
and the new education found its way into China 
through the work of Protestant missionaries. No 
people on the face of the earth believe in the bless- 
ings of education so much as do those of Protestant 
North America, and hence it is natural to find 
American missionaries playing by far the larger 
part in the development of schools and colleges. 

Some Educational Results. This work of educa- 
tion has gradually developed until in 1910 there 
were 3,708 primary schools, and 553 academies, col- 
leges, industrial, medical, nurses' and normal 
schools. 1 How can we estimate the enormous 
stream of influence flowing from these institutions? 
1 China Mission Year Book, 1912, p. lxxxvi. 




ST. JOHN'S UNIVERSITY, SHANGHAI 
MARTIN HALL, CANTON CHRISTIAN COLLEGE 



[p 218] 



The Influence of Christianity 219 

In a former chapter, we spoke of the marvelous re- 
sults of the life-work of one man, Dr. Yung Wing, 
in the introduction of enlightenment into China 
through the first educational mission to the United 
States. 1 He himself was a product of a mission- 
school. We might fill a chapter with accounts of 
what the graduates of these schools have accom- 
plished for their country. One of the great leaders 
of the Christian Church, the late Rev. Y. K. 
Yen, M. A., helped to lay the foundations of St. 
John's University, Shanghai, and was a noble advo- 
cate for the suppression of opium in China, advanc- 
ing the cause of the Anti-opium Society at public 
meetings throughout Great Britain. He came as a 
little heathen boy to a mission school, and there re- 
ceived the divine influences which molded his life 
and character. 

Missionary Educational Pioneering. We cannot 
paint in too dark colors China's ignorance before 
the advent of the missionary. There was abso- 
lutely no accurate knowledge of the geography of 
the world, the history of other nations, and the 
causes of physical phenomena. Throughout the 
darkness of the land, there was no light save that 
which radiated from the mission school. It is very 
different now, but we should never forget how 
the enlightenment began. So it was also with the 
books which were translated into Chinese. It was 
through the work of ^missionaries that the first 
books on astronomy, chemistry, physics, geology* 

1 See pages 20, 21. 



220 The Emergency in China 

history, and other sciences were given to the Chi- 
nese. Those who scoff at missions little realize 
what a tremendous influence for intellectual en- 
lightenment they have exerted. 

Reform Movement. We believe it would be no 
exaggeration to say that the reform movement in 
China began first with the missionaries. The Chris- 
tian Literature Society, formerly known as the So- 
ciety for the Diffusion of Christian and General 
Knowledge, through the publication of books and 
magazines extended new knowledge and new ideas 
throughout the length and breadth of the land. 
Many of the reformers of 1898 looked up to Dr. 
Timothy Richard, the General Secretary of the So- 
ciety, as their master and teacher, and realized that 
he had opened their minds to the truth. 

Medical Work. Again Christianity has borne one 
of the leaves for the healing of the nation through 
its philanthropic work. Wherever the missionaries 
have gone, there have sprung up the dispensary and 
the hospital. This was inevitable. They would 
not have been true followers of the Great Physician 
had they been callous or indifferent to the suffer- 
ings of Chinese humanity — sufferings largely caused 
by crass ignorance in regard to the causes of dis- 
eases and their means of remedy. There were in 
1910 in China 210 hospitals and 200 dispensaries, 
and 50,146 in-patients and 1,272,656 out-patients 
were treated. 1 

Beneficent Altruism. No greater evidence could 
1 China Mission Year Book, 1912, p. Ixxxvi. 



The Influence of Christianity 221 

have been given to the Chinese of the spirit of 
altruism characterizing the Christian religion than 
the work of medical missions. It has been the 
means of converting many to Christ, but in addi- 
tion to that, it has brought a new conception of 
love of mankind. Confucianism has developed no 
hospitals. Its negative statement of the golden rule 
has not given birth to an active crusade to relieve 
the miseries of mankind. Tried by this standard 
it is sadly wanting. A rational science of medicine 
was brought to China by the missionary, and in 
addition to all his labors in the hospital he has 
found time to instruct medical students and trans- 
late books on medicine into Chinese. In nothing 
perhaps is a nation more bigoted than in its be- 
lief in its own ancient system of healing. So it 
has been in China. In the face of prejudice and 
superstition and overwhelming odds, the medical 
missionary has patiently labored on until at last 
he begins to see results far beyond his expectations 
— incredulity replaced by faith, and the gradual 
introduction of saner methods of dealing with dis- 
ease. In the dawn of the new day, perhaps some 
will overlook the real pioneers of the movement. 
Tribute to Dr. Jackson. In days gone by, during 
antiforeign agitations, the hospital has sometimes 
been a cause of riots. Slanders circulated as to ne- 
farious practises of doctors and surgeons have in- 
flamed the minds of the ignorant masses and ex- 
cited them to a wild frenzy. In striking contrast 
to such mad outbreaks, leading to incendiarism and 



222 The Emergency in China 

massacre is the changed attitude of officials and 
people. When Dr. Jackson of the Presbyterian 
mission laid down his life in Manchuria in his noble 
attempt to stem the ravages of the plague, his self- 
sacrificing spirit stirred the hearts of the Chinese 
and won their admiration. At the memorial service, 
the viceroy of Manchuria used the following re- 
markable words : "The Chinese government has 
lost a man who gave his life in his desire to help 
them. O spirit of Dr. Jackson, we pray you to in- 
tercede for the twenty million people of Manchuria, 
and ask the Lord of Heaven to take away this pes- 
tilence, so that we may once more lay our heads 
in peace upon our pillows. In life you were brave,, 
now you are an exalted spirit. Noble spirit, who 
sacrificed your life for us, help us still, and look 
down in kindness upon us all/' 

Philanthropic Work. This altruistic side of 
Christian missions has not been confined to the 
establishment of dispensaries and hospitals. In ad- 
dition we find 14 orphanages, 16 leper asylums, 3 
homes for untainted children of lepers, 11 institu- 
tions for the blind and for deaf mutes, 5 rescue 
homes for fallen women, 100 opium refuges, 2 in- 
dustrial homes, one asylum for the insane, one 
school for beggar boys, and a refuge for slave girls. 
It is as if the Christian missionary would place his 
healing hand on all the great sore spots of the so- 
cial life of China. 

Orphanages. Much has been written about fe- 
male infanticide in China and we find no less an 




Life of Dr. Jackson of Manchuria, courtesy of Hodder and Stotighton 

DR. ARTHUR JACKSON 
" Noble spirit, you sacrificed your life for us 



[p 222] 



The Influence of Christianity 223 

authority than Professor Giles stating that the 
charge of practising female infanticide brought 
against the Chinese is "an atrocious libel. ,, We 
would be glad if we could endorse his words, but 
the evidence of the neglect of female infants on the 
part of the poor peasants is altogether too strong. 
Even if no live children were ever thrown into the 
baby towers, yet we have the fact confronting us 
that among the Chinese, one of the forms charity 
has taken is the establishment of foundling asylums 
for female infants. The Chinese lady who estab- 
lished the orphanage conducted by the Protestant 
Episcopal mission in Shanghai had the following 
experience. An old countrywoman brought in a 
baby girl given to her for the purpose of being 
drowned. She was rewarded for her trouble with 
a gift of twenty cents Mexican. In expressing her 
delight and thanks she said: "Had I known you 
were willing to pay for babies, I could have brought 
you any number instead of drowning them." We 
must bear in mind that the extreme poverty of the 
country people and the stern struggle for existence 
have been responsible for the practise, and not any 
abnormal cruelty on the part of the parents. 

Leper Homes. Nothing was ever done for lepers 
until the advent of the Christian missionary. The 
principle of segregation was unknown, and the man 
tainted with disease married and lived with his 
family, and became a menace to all with whom he 
came into close contact. 

Blind Asylums. It was also thus with the blind. 



224 The Emergency in China 

It never occurred to the Chinese that they could 
be educated and made useful citizens, earning their 
own living. The only calling for which they were 
deemed fit was that of the fortune-teller. Mr. Mur- 
ray in his remarkable work in Peking first demon- 
strated the possibility of teaching the blind to read 
by means of the braille system and his institution 
has become a model followed by the Chinese. 

Care for Deaf and Dumb. So it has been with the 
deaf and dumb. The first Protestant missionary to 
do anything for this neglected class was Mrs. Mills 
in Chefoo. She taught the Chinese how knowledge 
of the outside world and of spiritual truth may be 
conveyed to the minds of those who are deaf and 
how the speechless can convey their thoughts to 
one another. 

Care for Insane. China is a country where there 
is a strong belief in demoniacal possession, and all 
forms of insanity are attributed to the influence of 
evil spirits. There have never been any asylums for 
the insane. Whenever the demented are violent, 
they are chained up in the courtyard of the house, 
exposed to the elements day and night, and fed 
by morsels of food thrown to them as if they were 
dogs. Nothing has astounded the Chinese more 
than the cures wrought through kindness and ra- 
tional methods on these poor people. It has given 
rise to the belief that the Christian Church still 
possesses the power of exorcising demons. 

Evangelization. The third main method by 
which the Christian Church has exerted a great 



The Influence of Christianity 225 

influence is that of evangelization. Some who have 
a weak faith in missions commend the educational 
and medical work, but speak disparagingly of the 
evangelistic. In many ways the latter must appear 
the more discouraging. At times it looks as if all 
the seed fell by the roadside. We know, however, 
that such has not been the case, and that the direct 
preaching of the Word in street chapel and market- 
place has been the means of winning many to 
Christ. Even when immediate results are not 
forthcoming, yet something is accomplished in pre- 
paring the way for a future reception of the gospel. 
Over and over again the Christian convert was 
first aroused by what he heard from some public 
preaching as he stood among the crowd. 

A Preparation for Democracy. What we wish 
to point out here, however, is the fact that this 
constant preaching of the gospel has been one of 
the great forces by which new and revolutionary 
ideas have been spread among the Chinese. The 
preacher of the gospel proclaims everywhere those 
great truths which lie at the foundation of demo- 
cratic principles, as for instance, the intrinsic value 
of each individual soul in the eyes of God and its 
latent power of sonship to the Highest ; the brother- 
hood of man; and the Fatherhood of God. Then, 
in addition, he awakens in the minds of his hearers 
new conceptions of righteousness and sin, and puts 
before them higher moral ideals than any they 
have ever apprehended. Furthermore, he implants 
in their hearts new hope in regard to salvation and 



226 The Emergency in China 

personal immortality. Jesus Christ recognized the 
power of ideas, and hence his reiterated appeal, 
"He that hath ears to hear, let him hear." This 
constantly repeated preaching of the gospel is un- 
doubtedly one of the foremost causes of China's 
awakening. 

This Agency Calls Still for Missionaries. The 
statement is often made that China must be evan- 
gelized by the Chinese. The difficulties of the ac- 
quirement of the language, of understanding the 
mental idiosyncrasies of the Chinese people, and 
of presenting the truth in the way most easily com- 
prehensible to them are undoubtedly very great. 
The Chinese evangelist has a great advantage over 
his foreign coworkers in these respects. Hence 
the emphasis is now placed on the importance of 
the training of the native ministry and of educating 
evangelists. It is said with a good deal of truth 
that the missionary may spend his energy and abil- 
ity to greater profit in this way than by taking part 
in the direct work of evangelization. Yet on the 
other hand, the supply of Chinese clergy and evan- 
gelists is altogether too small. Everywhere we 
hear the same complaint. Those who apply to take 
up this work and who feel the call to it are far 
too few. The only remedy as it appears to us is 
the wider evangelization of the country. We still 
need men who will give up their ^hole time to 
the work of preaching in cooperation with native 
preachers, so that the multitudes may be reached. 
The supply of the native ministry and the work 



The Influence of Christianity 227 

of evangelization are indissolubly related to one 
another. Only by the earnest prosecution of the 
latter can we expect to get the material out of 
which will come the native ministry and evangel- 
ists. 

Development of Christian Character. By another 
great branch of his work, the Christian missionary 
has been influencing the social life of China, and 
that is by the development of Christian character 
in the converts who have been brought into the 
Church. The little groups of Christians here and 
there formed into congregations are bound together 
for a threefold purpose, — to offer worship to God, 
to increase their own spiritual life, and to be active 
agents in the dissemination of light and truth. In 
the Roman Empire, in the early days of Christian- 
ity, the followers of Christ seemed so sharply dis- 
tinguished from the people among whom they lived 
that they were often referred to as a third people. 
So it is in China; the Christians are differentiated 
from the non-Christians. Many of them lead lives 
which are the admiration and wonder of those who 
do not understand the transforming power of the 
gospel of Christ. Their family life is purer and 
more harmonious than that of non-Christians. 
They exhibit a greater regard for truth and hon- 
esty. They treat their wives and daughters bet- 
ter. They display more active compassion and 
sympathy. We do not mean that all who embrace 
the Christian faith live up to their profession, but 
making all necessary deductions for rice-Christians 



228 The Emergency in China 

and those who have been attracted by unworthy 
motives, it still remains true that the Christian 
Church as a whole reveals to the eyes of the Chi- 
nese a higher life than that produced by their own 
religions. When the Church passed through a pe- 
riod of trial during the Boxer outbreak, many stood 
the test as well as the Christians in the Roman 
Empire in the days of persecution. Thousands of 
Christian converts perished, although they could 
have saved their lives by trampling on a piece of 
paper bearing the characters for the name of 
"Jesus" or by sacrificing to idols. 

Striking Change in Gonverts. "The break of the 
genuine convert with his past is far more abrupt 
than anything with which we are familiar. He 
turns his back on opium, gambling, and unchastity, 
— the besetting sins of his fellows. He abandons 
cheating, lying, backbiting, quarreling, and filthy 
language, which are all too rife among the undisci- 
plined common people. He shuns litigation, often 
the ruin of the villages. By withdrawal from the 
festivals in the ancestral hall and from the rites 
at the graves of his ancestors, he sunders himself 
from his clan and incurs persecution. Thus the 
converts become separatists, with the merits and 
defects of separatists. Cut off from the world, and 
thrown with one another, they form a group apart, 
a body of Puritans that will one day be a precious 
nucleus of moral regeneration for China." 1 

New Spirit of Truthfulness. A striking instance 
1 E. A. Ross, The Changing Chinese, 235. 



The Influence of Christianity 229 

of the Christian's new regard for truth came within 
the writer's experience a short time ago. A young 
man educated at a Christian college by pre- 
tending to be a Christian availed himself of 
the privilege of paying reduced fees on the 
ground that he was in needy circumstances. He 
succeeded in passing the examination held at Pe- 
king for selecting students to study abroad and 
was sent to the United States. There he became a 
Christian, and immediately afterwards wrote a let- 
ter informing the authorities of the college in China 
of the deceit he had practised, and promising to 
make amends for his sin as far as possible by re- 
funding all the money of which he had defrauded 
the college. The repayment began at once and 
continued until the debt was wiped out. 

New Regard for Women. We have said enough 
about the Oriental attitude toward woman. The 
social customs of China show the position of in- 
feriority occupied by the weaker sex. Christianity 
brings a gospel which proclaims that there is 
neither Greek nor Jew, bond nor free, male nor fe- 
male, but all are one in Christ Jesus. It elevates 
womanhood by the beautiful story of the Virgin 
Mother, and by the accounts in the gospels of the 
Master's treatment of women. We never read that 
Confucius addressed a single word to a woman. 
In his teaching he is entirely silent in regard to 
them. In Buddhism a woman's chance of salvation 
lies in the possibility of her coming back to the 
world as a man during her transmigrations. 



230 The Emergency in China 

Summary of Results Achieved. To sum up again 
what Christianity has done for women in China, 
we may say, it has opposed the casting away of fe- 
male infants, it has set its face against foot-bind- 
ing, it has made parents see that it was their duty 
to educate their daughters, it has discountenanced 
infant betrothals and forced marriages, it has ad- 
mitted women to the same Church privileges as 
men, it has proclaimed that the same standard of 
purity is binding on men as on women, it has en- 
joined monogamy and given woman her rightful 
place in the family. It has been the greatest force 
for the elevation of woman and was the active 
leaven preparing the minds of the Chinese for the 
great changes which have recently been adopted. 

Bible and Tract Societies. Our account of the 
stream of influence flowing from Christian mis- 
sions would be incomplete if we failed to mention 
the work of Bible and Tract Societies. The three 
Bible Societies, the British and Foreign, the Ameri- 
can, and the National Bible Society of Scotland, 
have done a marvelous work in issuing and circulat- 
ing the Bible, New Testaments, and Portions of 
the Scriptures in the various dialects of the Chi- 
nese language. The total issue of the three So- 
cieties up to and including 1909 was as follows: 



Bibles .-. . 461,826 

Testaments 2,652,647 

Portions 40,682,306 

Grand Total 43796,779 



The Influence of Christianity 231 

The price at which the Scriptures are sold is, of 
course, as low as possible, but the fact that year 
after year there is a steady demand goes to show 
that there is a desire felt by the Chinese to under- 
stand something about the Christian religion and 
its sacred Book. What is at first idle curiosity 
often leads to further search for the truth and has 
been the means of bringing many into the Chris- 
tian Church. This wide-spread distribution of the 
Scriptures has as one of its results the breaking 
down of barriers between East and West. The 
point of view of Western civilization cannot be 
really understood apart from the religion to which 
it owes its highest ideals, and to understand this 
religion there must be a knowledge of its sacred 
Book. 

Range of Tract Work. There are to-day nine 
Tract Societies at work in China, and all are doing 
a most needed work. The circulation of the Bible 
without tracts explaining it would be a great dis- 
advantage. We must recognize the fact that the 
New Testament was not intended primarily for 
the heathen but for the members of the Christian 
Church. There is much in it that must be incom- 
prehensible to one who has received no Christian 
instruction. Through these tracts simple truths 
are presented in such a way that they can be as- 
similated by the Oriental mind. The number of 
copies circulated in a year by the nine Tract So- 
cieties with their headquarters at Shanghai, Han- 
kow, Chungking, Amoy, Hongkong, Peking, Can- 



232 The Emergency in China 

ton, Foochow, and Mukden, amounts to the large 
figure of 7,677,896. 

Tracts Herald New Movements. It needs but 
little imagination to perceive the value of this mis- 
sionary agency. A brief glance at the pages of his- 
tory shows that a new literature always arises as 
an invariable concomitant of a new political or so- 
cial movement. Along with the extended treatises 
which it calls forth, there are also the brief, con- 
densed, and concise tracts, for abstract principles 
have not so great a power to influence men's minds 
as the direct and practical application of these prin- 
ciples to the circumstances of the times. In the 
days of Lollardy the tracts of Wyclif moved and 
stirred men's minds. Cobden and Bright carried 
on their agitation for the repeal of the Corn Laws 
by the same method. In the days of the French 
revolution the stream of tracts issued daily was 
so large that it was impossible for the press to pub- 
lish them rapidly enough. The Chinese have used 
the same method, and the wonderful bringing about 
of the revolution was helped on by the circulation 
of tracts and pamphlets advocating reform, criti- 
cizing the old government, and creating new pub- 
lic opinion. So this powerful method is being em- 
ployed on behalf of Christianity in China by the 
missionaries. The human voice cannot reach all 
the corners of the vast country, but where the mis- 
sionary cannot go, there the tract has exerted an 
influence and prepared men's minds for the further 
reception of the truth. 




METHODIST PUBLISHING HOUSE, SHANGHAI 

SHANGHAI MISSION PRESS, SHANGHAI [p 232] 



The Influence of Christianity 233 

Criticism of Missions. We will now turn for a 
moment to some of the criticisms which have been 
made of Christian missions. We may divide them 
into three classes: Those of foreign residents in 
the East, those of the Chinese officials, and those 
of the rationalist. 

1. By Foreign Residents in the East. One of 
the greatest surprises of the young missionary is 
the somewhat contemptuous and scornful treatment 
he is apt to meet with on his journey to China. 
Perhaps in the homeland he has been regarded as 
something of a hero because he has dedicated him- 
self to the career of a foreign missionary. If so, 
the sudden fall from the height is felt all the more. 
Many of the officers of the ship on which he sails 
and some of his fellow passengers who may be 
returning to their homes or business in the East, 
look upon him as a deluded enthusiast or fanatic. 
In conversation, he will learn that missionary work 
is greatly overrated, and that the missionaries have 
not really accomplished anything. He is told that 
he is going on a fool's errand. He hears much 
about the easy lives missionaries lead and what a 
"soft thing" they have of it. The converts are 
referred to as rice-Christians and the whole enter- 
prise is disparaged. His informants speak so em- 
phatically and dogmatically that perhaps misgiv- 
ings arise in his mind, and he wonders if he has 
been deceived. This has been the experience of 
many. Men who come out on a visit to the East 
hear the same stories, and when they arrive at the 



234 The Emergency in China 

treaty ports missions are referred to in so slighting 
a way that they often return home without having 
taken the trouble of visiting any of the institutions 
within easy reach. 

Causes of Disparagement. What is the cause of 
the disparagement and criticism? Is it baseless 
slander or does it contain some grains of truth? 
The believer in missions naturally resents the mis- 
statements and it is hard for him to review the sit- 
uation calmly. 

Assumptions and Lack of Tact. Prejudice 
against missions arises sometimes from the some- 
what narrow and puritanical type of character dis- 
played by one type of missionary. When a mis- 
sionary tries to turn a steamer into a camp-meeting, 
it becomes somewhat annoying to his fellow trav- 
elers. If he wears an air of "I am holier than thou," 
of course it is resented. If he refuses, because he 
is not of the world to be in the world, he is looked 
upon as a Pharisee. In all fairness, I think we may 
confess that the missionary has not been entirely 
blameless and that some of the trouble is due to 
his lack of tact, and to his uncharitable attitude to- 
ward those whom he regards as worldlings. 

Difference of Ideals. But making allowance for 
want of culture and education and tact on the part 
of some missionaries, the cause of their unpopu- 
larity is after all the lack of sympathy felt by many 
of the residents of the East for their aims and 
ideals. Some resent the outspoken hostility of the 
missionary to the opium traffic. Others selfishly 



The Influence of Christianity 235 

consider that by the enlightenment of the Chinese, 
the missionary is taking the bread out of the 
mouths of the foreign merchants. Still others find 
the purer lives led by missionaries a standing re- 
proach to their own. The moral standard of life 
in the East is lower than that in a Christian coun- 
try, hence Kipling says that there .are no ten com- 
mandments east of Suez, "The sensualist, whose 
ruling passions are high living, drinking, gaming, 
and debauchery hates the missionary because his 
very presence is a reproof to him." It is the in- 
compatibility between the idealist and the world- 
ling. 1 

2. Official Criticism. We need not dwell long on 
official criticism. There is a well-known saying 
attributed to the late Li Hung-chang, classing 
opium and missionaries together as the two great 
curses of China. It was probably uttered as a jest, 
but the animus of it lay in the fact that China re- 
sented bitterly the interference on the part of mis- 
sionaries in matters connected with the govern- 
ment, and grieved over the indemnities she had 
been forced to pay on account of the attacks made 
on missionaries and the destruction of their prop- 
erty by infuriated mobs. 

Personal Indemnity Liable to Abuse. The in- 
terference on behalf of converts in the native courts, 
however excusable it may have appeared for the 

1 In making the above statements we recognize the fact tfiat 
the best element in the Eastern foreign communities strongly 
sympathizes with the work missionaries are doing. 



236 The Emergency in China 

sake of obtaining justice for them, as we have al- 
ready said, was unwise and unwarranted and nat- 
urally led to hard feeling on the part of the official 
class. It was a short-sighted policy, and has at- 
tracted to the Church many whose only reason for 
embracing Christianity was the desire to get pro- 
tection from the native authorities or to seek help 
in lawsuits. 

Voice of Missionaries against It. The great ma- 
jority of missionaries has always been opposed to 
this method of procedure, but unfortunately the ac- 
tion of a few has sometimes brought discredit upon 
the whole body. At the great Centenary Mission- 
ary Conference held in Shanghai, in 1907, the fol- 
lowing resolution was adopted. "That while the 
time has not yet come when all the protection to 
Christian converts provided in the treaties can 
safely be withdrawn, yet we recognize that such 
protection afforded at the instance of missionaries 
is intrinsically undesirable and also very liable to 
abuse. We therefore exhort all missionaries to 
urge upon their Chinese Christians the duty of 
patience and forbearance under persecution for 
Christ's sake, and also to make every possible ef- 
fort to settle matters privately, an appeal to the 
magistrate being the last resort, and then only after 
full and careful inquiry into the real facts of the 
case, so that the privileges secured by treaty to 
Chinese Christians may not be abused, or the purity 
of the Christian Church corrupted and its good 
name prejudiced." 



The Influence of Christianity 237 

Property Indemnity a Problem. The question of 
indemnity for mission property destroyed by riot- 
ers is indeed a vexatious one. On the one hand, if 
the officials knew that they would escape scot free 
whatever happened to missionary property in times 
of disturbance, provided they could prove that they 
themselves were innocent, they would be tempted to 
adopt a policy of laissez-faire, and would not exert 
themselves to keep order in their jurisdictions. On 
the other hand, the fact that the indemnity is 
wrung from the innocent people of the district 
where the riot occurred, and does not actually come 
out of the pockets of the officials, earns the ill will 
of those whom the Christian Church seeks to bene- 
fit. There is little doubt but that in the case of 
the Changsha riots, in 1910, the mission property 
was attacked in order to get the hated local officials 
into trouble with the central government. The 
change of government in China and the granting 
of complete religious toleration will certainly min- 
imize all cause of friction in the future between 
the authorities and the missions. 

3. Rationalistic Criticism. In regard to the criti- 
cism of the rationalists, in some ways it hardly lies 
within our province to deal with it. The agnostic 
rationalist has discarded belief in a personal God 
and in Christ as a divine Savior. His attacks on 
missions are virtually attacks on the Christian re- 
ligion, and the answer to them is the work of the 
Christian apologist. We have been struck by this 
in connection with the book put out with the title 



238 The Emergency in China 

A Chinese Appeal to Christendom. It was written 
under the pseudonym of a Chinese, but later the 
author confessed that he was an Englishman. Un- 
der the pretext of criticizing missions, he attacks 
many of the fundamental beliefs of the Christian 
religion. We might dismiss it as unworthy of 
consideration were it not that he has held up some 
of the weak points of the missionary enterprise as 
typical of the whole. It would be well for intend- 
ing missionaries to read the book, so that they may 
see themselves as others see them — even when the 
picture is somewhat of a caricature. The value of 
the book consists in this : it shows very plainly the 
sort of men and women needed in the mission field. 
It will not do to think that enthusiasm for the 
cause and sincere conversion are the only requisites. 
We must have those who are abreast of the day, 
acquainted with the results of theological thought 
in the West, and with knowledge of the trend of 
science. It will be disastrous if we attempt to 
propagate exploded theories and abandoned ideas 
in China as essential parts of Christian truth. The 
thought of the age will find its way into China, and 
unless the missionary is acquainted with it, he will 
stand convicted of ignorance, or else will appear 
in the guise of one who is disingenuous and has 
been concealing certain elements of knowledge from 
his flock. 

Appeal of the Gospel. So much may be noted 
in regard to the critics of missions. The unassail- 
able truth is that the religion of Christ appeals to 



The Influence of Christianity 239 

the hearts of the Chinese just as much as it does 
to the hearts of Westerners, and that accordingly 
Christianity is exerting a growing influence in the 
country. 

The Bond of Unity. The following familiar lines 
of Kipling's are often quoted as showing that there 
is a radical difference between the temperament of 
Orientals and Occidentals: 

Oh ! East is East and West is West, and never the twain shall 

meet 
Till earth and sky stand presently at God's great judgment 

seat. 

Those who would draw such a conclusion from 
the lines overlook those which immediately follow: 

But there is neither East nor West, nor border, nor breed, nor 

birth 
When two strong men stand face to face, tho' they come from 

the ends of the earth. 

The intention of the poet was to show that with 
all the differences there is an underlying unity of 
nature. That is just what missions prove. The 
gospel of the love of God in Christ makes a uni- 
versal appeal. The Lord's own words, "And I if 
I be lifted up from the earth will draw all men 
unto me/' are daily being fulfilled. The Confucian 
scholar like Chang Bo-lin, of Tientsin, who resigns 
his position because he is a Christian, and the poor 
dying peasant woman who has carved on her cof- 
fin a little cross in the place of heathen symbols 
that others may know she died in the faith of 



240 The Emergency in China 

Christ, stand at the opposite poles of Chinese so- 
ciety, but the gospel appeals to both alike. 

A Hopeful Parallel. "China's remoteness from 
our own historical epoch gives wings to the imagi- 
nation, and the traveler realizes that very likely 
the missionaries there face much the same situa- 
tion that confronted the infant Church in the Ro- 
man Empire — in both cases, temples, gods, images, 
altars, priests, sacrifices, superstitions, an outworn 
mythology, ancestor-worship, and moral ideals at- 
tracting only the elite. The Roman Empire was 
superior to China in civic virtue, but China is 
superior in domestic virtue. The plane of culture 
does not appear to be very different. . . . Since 
Christianity made its way through the Roman Em- 
pire chiefly by small tradesmen, artisans, and freed- 
men, why should it not make its way through the 
Chinese Empire? ... It is quite as congenial to 
the Chinese as it was to the people of the Roman 
Empire in the third century/' 1 

IMPORTANT QUOTATIONS 

And yet I am sorry to say that the lay representatives of the 
Western peoples, the Occidentals living in China, diplomatic, 
consular, commercial, or industrial, have seldom manifested 
during the past year genuine sympathy with this immense ef- 
fort on the part of a few hundred thousand men out of the 
huge population of China. It is very possible — indeed, common — 
for a foreign merchant to remain a whole generation in China 
and never make the acquaintance of a single Chinese gentle- 
man, or, indeed, of any Chinese above the grade of a house- 
servant, a porter, or a clerk. An English merchant, who had 
been conducting thirty-five years a successful, widespread 

1 E. A. Ross, The Changing Chinese, 257-259. 



The Influence of Christianity 241 

business in China, told me that he did not know a single word 
of Chinese, or a single Chinese man except his compradore. 
Hundreds of foreigners in China live there for many years 
without making the acquaintance of a single Chinese lady 
or gentleman. ... In the clubs organized and resorted to 
by English, Americans, and other foreigners in the Chinese 
cities, no Chinese person is eligible for membership. Think 
what that implies concerning the probable ignorance of the 
Occidental resident in China concerning the Chinese people, 
their qualities, their hopes, and their aspirations. The West- 
ern people in China who really know something about the 
Chinese are the missionaries, teachers, and other foreigners 
who go to China, and stay there, with some philanthropic 
purpose, or hope of doing good. They get into real contact 
and friendly relations with the Chinese, both educated and 
uneducated. One must not be surprised, therefore, if one 
finds among foreign business men who have lived in China 
only the most superficial acquaintance with Chinese conditions 
and qualities. 

— President Charles W. Eliot, Journal of Race Develop- 
ment, January, 1913. 

The last change to be noted is the loss of prestige the mis- 
sionary has suffered because of the familiarity of the educated 
Orientals with the life of the so-called Christian nations. For- 
merly, missionaries were regarded as typical representatives 
of Christianity. Now the missionary finds by his side men 
whose lives often give the lie to what he preaches. Around 
him are scores of educated men of the country who have 
traveled or studied in Europe and America. Most of these 
men have seen little of our best side, and our worst is patent 
to any stranger with eyes to see. It is no wonder, therefore, 
that they declare that Christianity is discounted by leading 
thinkers in the countries from which the missionary comes, 
and that he is trying to foist upon them a foreign religion that 
has failed at home. 

— Dr. E. W. Capen, The East and the West, April, 1912. 

There is no "sign of progress" more marked than the 
changed attitude toward Christianity, on the part of officials, 
gentry, and the common people. The attitude of the officials 
is more than simple religious toleration. Under the old regime, 
students from mission schools and ministers of the gospel were 
not even allowed a voice in the selection of delegates to the 
Provincial Assembly. Now they may not only be members of 
this Assembly, but numbers of them have been appointed to 



2^2 The Emergency in China 

high official positions. Those who have investigated tell us 
that 65 per cent, of the present officials in the Kwangtung 
province are either members of Christian churches or in such 
close connection with churches that they call themselves Chris- 
tians. 

— Dr. H. V. Noyes, Chinese Recorder, January, 191 3. 

Having listened to a great many discussions on mission 
work, there has grown upon us the feeling that as a body we 
lack perspective. There are those who advocate that the 
boards should make final gifts to specific fields, and then, 
with the exception of supporting missionaries and maintaining 
institutions already established, leave the problem until it is 
assumed by the Chinese Church. This method overlooks the 
need of tremendous development intensively. Others, possibly 
more numerous, think and talk as though the task of the for- 
eign mission boards and the missions is of indefinite duration. 
Listening to them, one gets the impression that it is our 
task to provide a sufficient number of foreign missionary evan- 
gelists to convert China; and that we must establish an edu- 
cational system that shall meet the needs of the whole of 
China. Should we not be truer in our thinking if we kept 
in mind the fact that we are here to plant Christianity; to 
establish a nucleus that shall determine the type without at- 
tempting to carry the whole burden? We need a certain num- 
ber of churches built with Western money; we need a com- 
plete educational system in connection with our Christian 
work; we need medical and philanthropical work to illustrate 
the spirit of Christianity, but each denomination does not 
need itself to maintain a complete educational system, and 
with the growing Chinese Church we should no longer assume 
that the providing of a sufficiency of evangelistic workers 
rests alone upon us. Our task of intensive development is 
far from finished, but more and more the problem of an ex- 
tensive development should be allowed to fall upon the 
Chinese Church. What we contribute to the planting of 
Christianity must be the best, but it is not our task to try 
to give all that is needed in any line of Christian activity. 
— Editorial in the Chinese Recorder, March, 1913. 



PRESENT AND FUTURE OF THE CHRIS- 
TIAN CHURCH 



CHAPTER VIII 

PRESENT AND FUTURE OF THE CHRIS- 
TIAN CHURCH 

He who has understood, in however faint degree, 
what the first great missionary called (( the eternal 
purpose" or, as it should perhaps be rendered, <( the 
purpose of the ages/' namely, that through the Church 
of God should be made known, not to men alone, but 
to the whole universe, the manifold wisdom of God, 
zvill feel that all argument for postponing the mission- 
ary enterprise, which is based upon a criticism of ap- 
parent results, is irrelevant. What is most needed at 
the present time is not a juster estimate of the failure 
or success of modern missions so much as a truer ap- 
preciation of their final aims. 

— Canon C. H. Robinson 

Right Measurement. In our last chapter we ut- 
tered a warning against measuring the influence of 
Christianity in China merely by counting the num- 
ber of converts. At the same time we acknowledged 
that such a computation was necessary and an in- 
dex to progress. 

Statistics. The following statistics show that the 
w T ork of founding the Christian Church in China 
has passed its initial stage. In addition to one mil- 

245 



246 The Emergency in China 

lion and a half Christians who are members of the 
Roman Catholic Church, there were in China in 
1910 1 connected with Protestant Churches a 
Christian community of 324,890. There are 502 or- 
dained pastors, 7,281 evangelists, 1,789 Bible- 
women, and 2,955 congregations. The amount con- 
tributed by Chinese for Church work in 1910 was 
$150,000. It is significant to note that the ratio 
of progress has greatly accelerated in recent years, 
and that the number of Christian converts has 
doubled since the year 1900. As the movement 
gathers momentum, we may confidently expect 
even more rapid growth in the future. 

Our Aim. We have come now to the stage when 
we must seriously consider how the Christian 
Church is to become thoroughly indigenous in 
China. Our effort must be threefold : to foster self- 
extension, self-support, and self-government. We 
begin to look forward to the time when it will no 
longer be in tutelage to the foreign Church and 
when the work will cease to be under the manage- 
ment of the foreign missionary sent out from home. 
As was pointed out at the Edinburgh Conference, 
the Church in the mission field is one of the most 
important subjects that can engage our attention. 
The future depends upon the wise development of 
the Church already in existence. The passing from 
childhood to manhood with institutions as with in- 
dividuals is the most critical period. 

1 Latest available statistics, given in China Mission Year 
Book, 1912, p. lxxxvi. 



Present and Future of the Christian Church 247 

Self-extension. Of course, the time has not yet 
arrived when we can leave the Church in China to 
carry on its own missionary propaganda. Each 
native congregation should be a center of mission- 
ary activity and each sincere Christian should act 
as a missionary, but the work to be accomplished 
is so vast that for years to come a host of conse- 
crated men and women from Christian lands will 
be needed to help in the enterprise. 

Inadequate Force. The number of Protestant 
missionaries in 1910 was 5,144, and of Roman 
Catholic missionaries 1,475, making a total of 
6,619. This would mean, taking the population of 
China as approximately four hundred million, that 
there is only one Protestant foreign missionary to 
every 78,000 inhabitants. If we make our calcula- 
tion after adding the number of native workers of 
the missions we may compute that there is a Prot- 
estant Christian worker to every 20,000 inhabitants. 
This shows of course how utterly inadequate the 
present force is for the accomplishment of its stu- 
pendous task. 

Unoccupied Fields. A careful survey brings out 
the fact that there are many portions of the field 
still unoccupied. An interesting table drawn up 
by Dr. MacGillivray in the China Mission Year 
Book, 1 191 1, states the number of missionaries in 
each province and shows how unequally the force 
is distributed. The largest number was in Kiangsu, 
Kwantung, Fukien, and Szechwan, and the smallest 

1 See page 293. 



248 The Emergency in China 

in Mongolia, Sinkiang, Kweichow, and Kwangsi. In 
Kweichow, for instance, there was one missionary 
to every 332,609 inhabitants. Even in provinces 
well occupied there are many districts where little 
or no work is carried on as is the case in Chekiang, 
Hupeh, and Kiangsi. Of course, missionaries in 
their choice of location have largely followed the 
line of least resistance, and heretofore it has been 
difficult to obtain a footing and to secure residence 
in many portions of the country. With the door of 
opportunity now thrown open more widely, it will 
be possible to locate missions in places formerly 
inaccessible. 

Need of Reenforcements. Certain conclusions 
are suggested: First, the need of reenforcements. 
Many appeals have gone out to the home Churches 
giving an estimate of the force of workers needed 
for the evangelization of China. All such computa- 
tions must be more or less tentative. It would be 
a reasonable policy to attempt to double the pres- 
ent number of workers in the immediate future. 
A word of caution should be uttered, however. It 
will not be wise to adopt plans by which we can 
flood China with missionaries irrespective of their 
fitness for the work. As in the past, so in the 
future, quality will count for more than quantity. 
The conversion of the East calls for the best 
equipped men and women the West can send. 
Every ounce of ability can be used to good purpose 
in this mission field. In sending fresh recruits we 
must endeavor to raise still further the average 



Present and Future of the Christian Church 249 

standard of qualifications of the entire missionary- 
force. 

More Native Workers. Secondly, the other con- 
clusion to which we are driven is the absolute neces- 
sity of increasing the force of native workers. The 
man who is successful in the training of the native 
ministry, — catechists and evangelists, — is taking 
part in a work which extends his own influence 
many-fold. As was noted at the Edinburgh Confer- 
ence : "The supply of men of the right type as theo- 
logical students is not at all adequate to the de- 
mands of the work. ... It is evident that in all 
parts of the world the advance of civilization and 
the increasing complexity of life creates a difficulty 
in securing a sufficient supply of qualified students. 
The minds of inexperienced young men in the mis- 
sion Churches are naturally somewhat distracted by 
their sudden introduction to wide ranges of knowl- 
edge and interest which are entirely new to them. 
At the same time they are attracted by many op- 
portunities of turning their knowledge to account 
in commerce or in government employment, and 
these callings offer a much higher rate of payment 
than that which is offered either by foreign missions 
or by those native Churches which support their 
own workers. It is quite evident that there is gen- 
erally a very creditable amount of loyalty to the 
Church and its work, and, inadequate as the supply 
of qualified students is, it would be much more in- 
adequate but for the fact that many of them are 
willing to make pecuniary sacrifices for the sake 



250 The Emergency in China 

of devoting their lives to the service of the Church, 
rather than engaging in more lucrative employ- 
ments. m Over and over again we meet young men 
in the ministry, who with their education and at- 
tainments could secure salaries twice and three 
times as large as those they receive from the 
Church. Only as the general spiritual tide of the 
native Church rises to a higher level, will the abso- 
lute essential — the spirit of self-sacrifice — increase. 
When the young men are actuated by this spirit, 
there will no longer be a lack of applicants for the 
native ministry. 

Need of a Well-qualified Ministry. In their ur- 
gency for the increase of the number of native work- 
ers, missionaries are sometimes tempted to lower 
the standard of intellectual qualification. Those 
young men who are highly educated and have re- 
ceived a knowledge of the English language are 
attracted away, and in order to prevent this, the 
missionary would advocate giving an education that 
will have a lower pecuniary value. The narrow pol- 
icy of restricting our education would be a fatal 
one. China calls for a well-educated ministry, and 
we must give our young men as wide a culture as 
possible. Although we need simple, earnest evan- 
gelists for our work, yet the supreme need is for 
the well-educated, able, consecrated leaders. We must 
produce men of the type of Tertullian, Origen, 
and Clement of Alexandria, if we are going to in- 

1 Edinburgh Conference Report, Vol. II, The Church in the 
Mission Field, 184. 




DING LI MEI, CHINESE EVANGELIST 



[p 250] 



Present and Future of the Christian Church 251 

fluence profoundly the religious life and thought of 
this nation. We must remember that the native 
missionary, in addition to having to meet the argu- 
ments raised by Confucianists, Buddhists, and Tao- 
ists, is also called upon to resist the same attacks 
on religion as are current in Western countries, for 
every breeze of rationalistic thought is felt in 
China. He must therefore be able to give a reason 
for the faith that is in him and to show that the 
results of scientific investigations are not subversive 
of the truths of the Christian religion. 

The Christian College and Theological Training. 
The need of the well-qualified ministry of the na- 
tive Church to help in the extension of the Church 
leads to the subject of the Christian college. Its 
development is a necessity as it is the training- 
ground for those who will take up the special study 
of theology. "Theological learning in apologetics, 
Biblical criticism, Church history, and dogmatics, 
with relevant philosophy and ethics, should be ade- 
quately taught in all theological schools of the 
higher grades. Now that the battle is joined, con- 
tentment with makeshift courses of training for our 
best men in the mission field would be disloyalty to 
the Christian cause." 1 

Mass Movements. Some look forward to more 
rapid extension of the Church in the future through 
what may be called "mass movements." There 
have already been instances of whole towns and 

1 Edinburgh Conference Report, Vol. II, The Church in the 
Mission Field, 198. 



252 The Emergency in China 

districts seeking admission to the Christian Church, 
and the missionary has been overwhelmed by what 
appears on the surface to be a great spiritual move- 
ment. Experience proves, however, that much cau- 
tion must be used in guiding and controlling such 
movements. Sometimes it turns out "that the 
movement has been inspired by the hope of gaining 
missionary support in lawsuits or winning the ap- 
proval of the mandarins or enjoying consular pro- 
tection in times of trouble. In one district of 
Kiangsi, in 1901-02, a single enthusiastic missionary 
gathered in twenty thousand souls, and numerous 
self-supporting congregations arose. But presently 
the proselytes went to settling old scores with their 
Roman Catholic enemies, and the new missionary 
sent out to sift thd wheat from the chaff found 
himself, after a year of Church discipline, with only 
a hundred faithful." 1 

Peril in Mass Movement. The thoughtful mis- 
sionary looks forward with anxiety to the prospect 
of multitudes seeking admission into the Christian 
Church. He knows that the day is coming when a 
general movement of the people may be expected. 
He remembers that in the history of the Church 
in the past wholesale conversions have not been 
an undisguised blessing. The tone of the Church 
may be lowered. Worldliness may creep in. A 
larger mass than can be readily assimilated will 
present innumerable difficulties. Spiritual Chris- 
tianity is advanced by winning individuals, not by 
1 E. A. Ross, The Changing Chinese, 236. 



Present and Future of the Christian Church 253 

attracting masses. Complete religious toleration 
granted, these movements will be unavoidable. 
Will the Church be ready to deal with them? Will 
the force of workers be sufficient? Will its organi- 
zation be strong enough? 

Self-support. In the early days the missionary 
perhaps did too much in the way of pauperizing 
the native converts. Everything was done for them 
and they naturally came to look on the Church as 
a great benefactor, conferring benefits with no ex- 
pectation of a return. When there was but a hand- 
ful of Christians, it was easy to allow the matter of 
self-support to lie dormant. Now it has become 
one of the pressing questions of the hour, and we 
realize that only a self-supporting Church can be- 
come indigenous. Considerable progress has been 
made, and we find many congregations supporting 
their own pastors, meeting all their own expenses, 
and carrying on missionary work among the non- 
Christian population. The new spirit of nationalism 
helps to foster self-respect in the congregations, and 
they are no longer willing to rely entirely on for- 
eign support. They have grasped the connection 
between self-support and self-government. They 
have conceived the aim of developing an autono- 
mous Church, and they realize that the first essen- 
tial step is to provide for their own maintenance. 

Methods of Encouraging Self-support. Different 
methods of encouraging self-support are resorted 
to by different missions. The underlying principle 
is the same, namely, to help in sustaining native 



254 The Emergency in China 

congregations until such time as they can entirely 
assume their own support. The Church Missionary 
Society has worked out a system of grants-in-aid 
to native congregations which decrease in propor- 
tion to the increase in church-membership. Some 
take the ground that the best method to insure self- 
support is to connect it with the ordination of the 
ministry. "When a congregation has become 
strong enough to support its own pastor, then it 
should be allowed to elect one of the evangelists, 
catechists, or theological students for such position, 
and then, and not until then, should the man receive 
his ordination to the ministry." 

Question of Church Edifices. Care must be exer- 
cised in regard to providing churches for native con- 
gregations. The investment of foreign money in 
schools, hospitals, and similar agencies is entirely 
legitimate, for such institutions represent the Chris- 
tian philanthropy of the foreign Church. Al- 
though we must erect churches at our central sta- 
tions worthy of the Christian religion, where Chris- 
tian worship can be conducted in a dignified man- 
ner, yet it would appear to be better to allow the 
edifices to come for the most part as the natural 
development of the Church takes place. In New 
Testament times, certainly the external fabric was 
not considered the matter of prime importance. We 
read of the church in the household of this or that 
Christian. Although inconvenient to conduct pub- 
lic worship in private houses or rented premises, 
yet it would be better to follow this plan in interior 




TEMPLE OF HEAVEN 

Where Christian worship has been held 

SELF-SUPPORTING CHURCH, YU YAO, NEAR NINGPO 



[p 254] 



Present and Future of the Christian Church 255 

stations rather than provide a costly shell before 
there is the life within of which it should be the 
natural embodiment. In every case, the erection 
of the building should be dependent on a liberal 
subscription on the part of the congregation for 
w r hich it is intended. Dr. J. C. Gibson, of Swatow, 
who has done so much for the development of self- 
support in the Church in the mission field, writes 
the following encouraging words : The problem of 
the self-support of the Church is now universally 
recognized not only as an ideal, but as a working 
program which is daily advancing towards fulfil- 
ment. Time is needed for working it out, but the 
principles and the assurance of success are now 
well within the grasp both of missionaries and of 
Chinese Christians." In China as elsewhere, Chris- 
tianity has had its strongest influence first among 
the poorer classes. It is now reaching the middle 
and higher classes. In proportion as it permeates 
the whole of society, the problem of self-support 
w r ill solve itself. 

Self-government. Even if the missionary was not 
anxious to promote self-government, the new na- 
tional spirit, as we have already stated, is a force 
which makes for it. A Church under foreign con- 
trol appears to the Chinese as a foreign religion. 
The idea of its being foreign deters many from en- 
tering it. The Chinese Church has already shown 
what it can do in the way of self-support, and it is 
also manifesting that it possesses a large amount 
of administrative ability. By many of the missions 



256 The Emergency in China 

great steps in advance have been taken in regard 
to this matter. This is especially the case with 
the Presbyterian missions and those of the Anglican 
communion. The Chinese are very anxious for a 
more complete autonomy, but most of them are 
wise enough to see that autonomy and self-support 
are interrelated. As has been well said, "Taxation 
without representation is tyranny, but representa- 
tion without taxation is worse." 

Impulses Leading to It. Some attempts havei 
already been made to break loose entirely from 
mission control and to establish an independent 
Church. Thus far they have not proved a great 
success, the reason being that most of the Chinese 
prefer to remain loyal to the Church in which they 
have been brought up and to await patiently the 
day of more complete autonomy. We may expect, 
however, increasing restiveness unless a greater 
share in management and control is given to the 
leaders of the native Church. They are sensitive 
at being placed in a position where it appears as 
if they were the servants of the foreign mission- 
aries, and it will be wise to give them increased 
responsibilities just as fas't as they show themselves 
capable of assuming them. As has often been said, 
we must endeavor to make plain that the foreign 
missionary and his native brother are coworkers 
in one cause, and we must remove the erroneous 
conception that the latter is the hireling of the 
former. 

DeveloDment in the North. An interesting ex- 



Present and Future of the Christian Church 257 

periment in the development of an independent 
Church is being tried in the North, and it will be 
watched with close interest. The form of Church 
policy and the statement of faith which it adopts 
will be indicative of what seems to be of greatest 
importance to the Chinese mind in connection with 
Christianity. 

Native Lack of Discipline. One of the greatest 
problems the Chinese will have to solve in connec- 
tion with the establishment of independent churches 
is that of discipline. The Oriental dreads making 
enemies, for he never feels sure but that some day 
he will be the victim of the injured party. On this 
account he is apt to be reticent in regard to griev- 
ous offenses. Lax discipline is one of the greatest 
faults in connection with the government school 
system. The same sort of lax discipline in the 
Church would be disastrous. 

Mission Unity Needed. Undoubtedly one of the 
causes holding back the development of an autono- 
mous Church in China is the lack of corporate 
Church unity. If all Protestant Christians belonged 
to-day to one united body, it would be comparative- 
ly easy for them to become an independent Church. 
Foreign missionaries have propagated their own di- 
visions and thus we find a large number of Churches, 
some strong and some weak and struggling. The 
writer is convinced that sooner or later, even if the 
home Churches were benighted enough to attempt 
to plant their divisions permanently, a great cen- 
tralizing movement will take place among the na- 



258 The Emergency in China 

tive Churches. The reasons for remaining apart 
can never appear to them as cogent as they do to 
us. In order that they may be strong in the face 
of great opposing forces they will unite. The prob- 
lem of Church unity may be settled on the mission 
field sooner than it is in Christian lands. 

Spiritual Life. The spiritual life of the Christian 
Church is of course a matter of grave concern. Self- 
extension, self-support, and self-government all ul- 
timately depend upon it. A living Church will prop- 
agate itself, support itself, and develop the ability 
to govern itself. Sometimes we are discouraged 
because the native Church does not advance more 
rapidly in spiritual stature. We forget that it must 
be a slow growth and that the perfection of saints 
cannot be reached by a sudden leap. We would be 
more charitable and patient if we bore in mind the 
low spiritual and moral environment by which the 
nascent Church is surrounded. 

Evidence in Character. The Chinese Church has 
produced many men and women of saintly charac- 
ter, and in the persecution connected with the 
Boxer uprising, many proved themselves worthy 
of enlisting in the noble army of martyrs. Every 
missionary can bear witness in his own personal 
experience to the transforming power of Christ in 
the lives of Christian converts. One has only to 
read a biography like that of Pastor Hsi if he would 
have an evidence of the high type of character pro- 
duced among the Christians of China. 

Revivals. For the purpose of stimulating growth 



Present and Future of the Christian Church 259 

in spiritual life, the method of holding revivals has 
been resorted to, and wonderful accounts reach us 
of the effects of such special services in Manchuria, 
Fukien, and other parts of China. "There have 
been strange demonstrations of contrition, and pub- 
lic confession of personal sin, accompanied with 
great intensity and perseverance in fervent prayer." 
We must be careful in the use of such methods, 
lest they lead to unwise exaggeration and unhealthy 
excitement. The Chinese who have appeared to 
us all along as a very matter-of-fact and unemo- 
tional people, have proved in political as well as in 
religious matters subject to hysteria. Religious 
appeals directed only or chiefly to the emotions, 
apart from the reason, will often lead to disastrous 
consequences. The later reaction from the high 
pitch of excitement is apt to work more harm than 
the good which seemed to have been accomplished. 
"The real working of the Holy Spirit must mani- 
fest itself, not in the excitement of meetings how- 
ever profitable, or even in testimonies however fer- 
vent, but by 'signs following' in holiness and ele- 
vation of spiritual living." 1 

High Relative Level. Taken on the whole it 
would be fair to say that the average of spirituality 
and morality in the Christian Church to-day in 
China will compare most favorably with that of the 
Church in the home lands. 

Outlook. We must turn now to the outlook for 
the future. No one can predict with certainty God's 

1 Dr. J. C Gibson. 



260 The Emergency in China 

plans in regard to this great people. We may take 
as our battle-cry the evangelization of the world 
in this generation, but of course we do not mean 
to place bounds or limits to God's activity. No 
one knows the day or the hour of the coming of 
the Son of Man. In the history of the Church as 
in the history of nations it is the unexpected that 
is always happening. Noting the advance already 
made and relying on God's promise, we are right 
however in looking forward to the future in a spirit 
of hopefulness and courage. If the Church of 
Christ realizes the criticalness of the time, and the 
greatness of the opportunity, and if a great and 
united effort is put forth, wonderful things may be 
accomplished. We must face squarely some of the 
problems which must be solved and the means 
which must be employed so that the missionary 
enterprise in China may be brought to a successful 
issue. 

Church Unity. One of the most pressing prob- 
lems is that of Church unity. Frequently the 
divided state of Christendom is lamented on account 
of the economic loss which it involves. It is easy 
to point out the needless expenditure incurred by 
the support of so much machinery in the home 
land and on the mission field which would be un- 
necessary were the Church one corporate body. 
Now we have a multiplication of mission boards at 
home and a multiplication of mission institutions 
in the field. We do well to dwell upon this disad- 
vantage connected with missionary enterprise, but 



Present and Future of the Christian Church 261 

it is not the greatest evil connected with division. 
The loss of spiritual energy far outweighs the eco- 
nomic loss. Dr. Newman Smyth has used the fol- 
lowing striking illustration. If we take a number 
of disconnected cells, we know we can get only a 
small amount of energy from each. If we unite 
them in one battery, the energy is increased greatly 
in excess of the sum of the number of cells used. 
So it would be with the Church. Unity would lead 
to a vast increase in the spiritual energy of the 
whole body. Is not this the reason why Christ 
associated unity and the power of witnessing so 
closely together: "That they may be one, that the 
world may know that thou hast sent me"? 

Strength of Movement Abroad. In the mission 
field there is a stronger desire for unity than in 
the home Church. The missionary realizes its ab- 
solute importance. Hence we find questions of co- 
operation, comity, and federation frequently dis- 
cussed. For the mcst part missionary bodies have 
agreed to avoid unnecessary overlapping of their 
work. In educational work they have accomplished 
a good deal in the way of cooperation, several mis- 
sion bodies uniting in the support of one institu- 
tion to serve the needs of all. The list of such co- 
operative schemes is on the increase. We now 
have union medical colleges, union universities, 
union theological schools, union normal schools, 
and union women's college, union Bible institutes, 
union mission presses, and union tract societies. 1 
1 China Mission Year Book, 1911, p. 188. 



262 The Emergency in China 

Large Unions Planned in Two Fields. In North 
China there is a proposal, on the lines of the South 
India United Church, to unite the churches of the 
Presbyterian missions, the American Board and 
London missions, the Methodist Episcopal, Eng- 
lish Methodist, and English Baptist missions. It is 
suggested that the name should be The Chinese 
Church of Christ. In West China, the missionaries 
have taken in hand the supreme problem of form- 
ing one Christian Church. Dr. Joseph Beech, in 
speaking of the endeavor, says: "We may fail to 
convince the home constituency and so be unable to 
realize outward organic union, but catholicity and 
unity will continue to dominate West China." 1 

Need of Corporate Reunion. Cooperation, how- 
ever, is not union, and the difficulties of conducting 
cooperative institutions are innumerable. We can- 
not be satisfied with this nor with federation as 
the final solution of our problem. We must hope 
and pray for the corporate reunion of Christendom. 
As Dr. Gibson says : "Assuredly the day will come 
when Christian men will feel puzzled to explain 
why, in the beginning of the twentieth century, 
Christians thought it necessary, even in the pres- 
ence of the hostile forces around them, to stand 
aloof from one another. We talk as if we were 
under some inscrutable doom of alienation which 
we cannot escape. Perhaps the specter which 
haunts us is but the shadow of ourselves, and if 
we could all turn full face to the light, it would dis- 
1 China Mission Year Book, 1912, p. 276. 



Present and Future of the Christian Church 263 

appear. What if the chief problem of the Chinese 
Church should prove to be — Ourselves!" 

Denominational Unification. Another encourag- 
ing sign of coming unity is the formation by closely 
related units of larger entities. Presbyterian bodies 
have united together. Churches of the Anglican 
communion have established one Church for China. 
Methodists, Baptists, and Congregationalists are 
showing the same centripetal tendency. When 
these larger units are formed, mutual conference 
between them will become easier. The units are 
now forming molecules and we may expect the 
molecules to be attracted to one another until the 
one body is formed. 

Development of Educational Work. Another 
urgent need of the Church in China is the rapid de- 
velopment of its educational work. We need not re- 
fer again to the glorious part the Christian Church 
has played in the introduction of liberal education 
into China. Now we confront an entirely new situa- 
tion. The new government of China will press for- 
ward with the development of a national system 
of education for the whole country. It will follow 
in the footsteps of Japan. It will look to the 
United States as a model. What will become of 
mission educational institutions in the face of this 
increased activity on the part of the government? 
Are they doomed to disappear in the course of 
twenty-five or fifty years? Will they any longer 
be necessary? 

Need of the Christian School. In answering 



264 The Emergency in China 

these questions we will first consider their neces- 
sity. If the Christian schools in China should be 
blotted out, the loss would be irreparable to the 
cause of the Church and the extension of Christian 
civilization. Government schools will be secular, 
and inasmuch as they will exist in an environment 
which is non-Christian, we cannot expect them to 
exert an influence in favor of Christianity. It will 
probably be hostile. 

Object-lesson of Japan. We have a great object- 
lesson before us in what has taken place in Japan. 
In the first number of the International Review of 
Missions, President Tasuka Harada, LL.D., in an 
article on "The Present Position of Christianity in 
Japan" points out the fatal mistake made by the 
Christian Church in that country by its neglect of 
education. "Thirty years ago," he says, "Christian 
higher educational institutions could compare favor- 
ably with the corresponding grade of government 
institutions in both equipment and work, and Chris- 
tian schools were admittedly in the front rank. 
Meanwhile, however, government and public 
schools have advanced a hundred paces, while 
Christian schools have taken but two or three fal- 
tering steps." And again, "If the falling behind of 
Christian schools is not checked, it is no exaggera- 
tion to say that within twenty or thirty years Chris- 
tian scholarship will be an inconsiderable factor in 
the thought and higher life of the nation. It is 
certainly a crisis, calling for resolute action and 
large policies by all the Christian forces. We need 



Present and Future of the Christian Church 265 

the best possible middle schools, where the foun- 
dations of high and manly character may be laid; 
we need Christian higher schools, where a liberal 
training may be given; and we need Christian uni- 
versities, with theological, arts, and science depart- 
ments, to produce leaders in these branches of 
knowledge. . . . For the consummation of the 
evangelization of Japan in any true sense such 
educational institutions are a sine qua non, and for 
this reason, if for no other, w r e must continue to 
look for generous help to our Christian friends 
across the seas." His words apply even more forci- 
bly to the conditions which will arise in China if 
w r e neglect our educational work. 

Need of the University. The need of the Chris- 
tian university in China has been much discussed. 
Already there are several institutions of university 
grade, and all that prevents their further develop- 
ment is the lack of funds. The United Universities' 
scheme for a university in Central China is now 
before the public and appeals for its support are 
being made in the home lands. 

Many Higher Institutions Required. It would be 
well, however, to bear in mind the need of strength- 
ening many phases of the educational work. The 
founding of one new university will not meet the 
demand. China is a vast country, and the Church 
should plan for the building up of colleges and uni- 
versities at many strategic points. Mr. Leslie 
Johnston in the January, 1912, number of The East 
and the West asks the following pertinent questions: 



266 The Emergency in China 

Can the Church "afford to allow the stream of its 
education to flow into and be absorbed by the sandy 
wastes of materialism? That is what the lack of a 
Christian university will mean, for the only other 
outlet for the Christian student who would obtain 
advanced knowledge is the materialistic government 
college and university." 

Need of Specialization. Furthermore, we would 
emphasize as one of the great needs of the future 
further specialization. We have reached the time 
when the work calls for specialists. Formerly, the 
missionary was obliged to turn his hand to work 
for which he had no special training. It is foolish 
to expect a man to run a school, carry on evangelis- 
tic work, train native workers, translate books, and 
administer the affairs of the mission. Only by 
further division of labor can the work be carried on 
efficiently. We need evangelists, pastors, teachers, 
professors, translators, doctors, nurses, treasurers, 
business managers, kindergartners, and other spe- 
cial workers. 

Literary Work Demanded. It would be difficult 
to exaggerate the importance of setting aside more 
men for literary work. Schopenhauer, Hartmann, 
and Haeckel have been translated into Chinese and 
antichristian literature is rapidly increasing. The 
Chinese naturally consider that these are the latest 
and final utterances of Occidental philosophy. The 
only possible way of counteracting their widespread 
influence is by the dissemination of books of a dif- 
ferent character. Many of the brightest minds of 



Present and Future of the Christian Church 267 

the West should be engaged in making known to 
China through translations the standard literary 
works of the Occident, so that they may obtain an 
adequate knowledge of Christian philosophy and 
have a true conception of the best recent utter- 
ances of Western writers on religious subjects. 
Such work as that carried on by the Christian Lit- 
erature Society needs to be greatly expanded. 

Need of Evangelists. Lastly, as we have already 
stated, there must be a larger number of those 
sometimes called "ordinary missionaries" devoting 
themselves entirely to the work of evangelization. 
They should be dispersed throughout the country, 
living in the towns, among the people, forming 
friendships with them, especially with those of the 
educated classes. If such missionaries combine 
broad culture with ardent devotion to Christ, and 
with a love of their fellow men, they will play a 
most important part in the evangelization of China. 
"Is it not time to stop saying, 'The best evangel- 
ists for China are the Chinese/ and 'No country was 
ever evangelized but by its own people'? These 
are truisms, that is, fractional truths ; but they have 
been repeated too often, and like other truisms, they 
have become untrue. The Western Church needs 
to be told that the way to get more and better Chi- 
nese evangelists is to send out more and better 
qualified foreign missionaries, to be in every mis- 
sion its evangelistic corps, the nucleus of the evan- 
gelistic corps of the Chinese Church." *■ 

x Dr. J. C. Gibson in China Mission Year Book, 191 1, p. 184. 



268 The Emergency in China 

The Calls. As we glance back over Church his- 
tory, we learn that from time to time there came 
a call from the Head of the Church to undertake a 
task of stupendous magnitude. However, before 
the summons was issued, the way was prepared 
and the door of opportunity flung open. So it was 
when the call came to win the Roman Empire. No 
sooner was that task nearing completion than an- 
other great call or commission was imposed. The 
downfall of the Western Roman Empire and the ir- 
ruption of the barbarians from the north made 
possible the conversion of Europe, and then began 
the missionary work among Germans, Franks, Scan- 
dinavians, Celts, and Anglo-Saxons. 

Third Great Call. Something like a century ago 
the third great call began to be heard, and this time 
it was for the Christian conquest of the Orient. 
Little by little barriers have been leveled, and the 
way made clear. To-day we realize that Christ is 
summoning his Church to the conquest of China. 

Immensity of Task. The immensity of the task 
is inspiring. The Chinese are a great people: first, 
on account of their number, 400,000,000, to be won 
for Christ; second, on account of their splendid 
racial characteristics. Tried by the rule of the sur- 
vival of the fittest, they have survived, and will 
survive. They possess untiring patience, indomit- 
able perseverance, remarkable fidelity and reliabil- 
ity, strong common sense, keen intellectual ability, 
great social virtues, frugal simplicity in life, and 
exalted moral ideals. In the third place, they are 



Present and Future of the Christian Church 269 

great because of the greatness of their civilization, 
a civilization founded on moral principles and not 
on force, the highest in the world until 300 years 
ago, and hoary in years compared with our own. 
Surely this unique people, preserved for so many 
centuries, must have a great part to play in the 
future. It is impossible to think of them as dying 
out or becoming extinct. No one can foresee their 
influence on the coming development of the world's 
civilization. 

Point of Crisis. The criticalness of the times is 
an inspiration. The old civilization is declining, 
and with the influx of Western ideas and principles 
there has come a period of transition. The danger 
is that they may accept only what is bad from us 
and reject what is good. Successful materialism 
may obscure the hoary wisdom of their own philos- 
ophy. Now is the time when they need to learn of 
the spiritual and saving power of the religion of 
Jesus Christ. 

Greatness of Opportunity. The greatness of the 
opportunity is inspiring. In the days of the begin- 
ning of Protestant missions in China, progress was 
so slow that it appeared as if the task was hopeless. 
In recent years a marvelous change has come. 
China has been opened up, her barriers of exclusive- 
ness have been razed to the ground. She wants to 
learn from the West. China is awake. "The big- 
gest of all nations, the people with the greatest 
latent powers, the heirs of to-morrow, have started 
to school to learn all the ways and weapons and 



27° The Emergency in China 

wisdom of the West." 1 The opportunity to influ- 
ence them for good is almost incredible. Can we put 
before ourselves any higher ideal or any more glori- 
ous ambition than to have a part in the uplift of 
this people. The Church is growing with wonder- 
ful rapidity. We can "look on the fields, for they 
are white already to harvest." As in the past, so 
now, the victory will not be won without a struggle. 
The same conflict between the power of darkness 
and light will take place in China as in the Roman 
Empire and as in the forests of Europe. 

Who will Hear and Respond? Will the Church 
heed the call? Will men and women volunteer to 
take part in the campaign in sufficient numbers? 
Will the enterprise be supported worthily? Who 
will listen to the voice saying, "Who will go?" and 
answer, counting it a glorious privilege more than 
a sacrifice, "Here am I, send me"? 

IMPORTANT QUOTATIONS 

Such success, however, brings its peculiar ^ dangers. Chris- 
tianity is in peril in China from a wave of intellectual popu- 
larity. It is too true in many instances, especially among the 
educated youth of the land, that with the head man believeth, 
and with the mouth a formal confession is made, while the 
heart, the very fountain of faith, is still parched^ and dry. 
An unspiritual confession is the positive danger which threat- 
ens many of the churches of China, especially in large centers 
of population where thought is quick and the minds of men 
responsive to new ideas. Patronage is given where faith is 
called for, and acknowledgment offered rather than service. 
It is for this cause that many Chinese are rinding their church 
life, or the substitute for it, in the Chinese Young Men's 
Christian Association. . . . No lowering of the spiritual 

1 Ellis, Men and Missions, 26. 



Present and Future of the Christian Church 271 

standards of church life can be thought of in the face of the 
situation in China to-day 2 the^ peril of a soulless Church is too 
great. The nation, and especially the genial, well-wishing, and 
socially sympathetic part of it, must be made to understand 
that the Church ideal is something higher, more far-reaching, 
and infinitely more searching than political or moral reform, 
needful and good as these may be. Mere financial patronage 
or an attitude of well-wishing toleration can never be per- 
mitted to take the place of Christian confession. China is 
already full to overflowing of those who ''know the truth, 
but do it not" 

— Rev. Nelson Bitton, The East and the West, October, 
1912. 

How can adequate religious training be secured in the homes 
— the natural and seemingly indispensable place for such train- 
ing — when the almost hopeless conditions of ordinary home 
life are considered, where but few of the large family are 
Christians, and the privacy and leisure required are well-nigh 
impossible to expect? How can efficient nurture work be 
planned and adequately carried forward in the country 
churches, where the membership is small and scattered over a 
large extent of territory, and likely no resident pastor or 
teacher? How can adequate religious instruction be given to 
a lay membership with a low average church attendance, and 
certainly in some sections of the field but slight intention to 
set aside the Sabbath either as a day of rest from daily labor 
or as an opportunity for worship and Christian training? 
How shall time be taken by the undermanned and not suffi- 
ciently prepared Chinese preaching agency for carefully 
planned and patiently worked-out lines of Bible teaching work, 
when the doors for preaching the gospel are open now as 
never before? And how, again, shall the foreign missionary 
himself be led to realize more fully that the fundamental con- 
dition to a satisfactory harvest is a constant and patient nur- 
ture of seed already planted, when all about in these days of 
phenomenal changes crops are apparently springing up in a 
night ? 

— Article on "Second Summer School of Methods," Chinese 
Recorder, October, 1912. 

Ideas of social service are very foreign to the Chinese. 
Such ideas introduced apart from the gospel of Christ are 
certain to degenerate into the old religion of merit-making, 
which has proved so powerless to uplift the suffering or 
ennoble the performer of these ultimately selfish deeds. But 
missions after the revolution will surely give an ever-increas- 



2"J2 The Emergency in China 

ing emphasis to that most practical manifestation of the gos- 
pel, true Christian social service, in the name of Christ and 
directly for his glory in the salvation of souls. As in the 
past medical missions have avowed the evangelistic motive as 
distinctly paramount, so in the future will all the new forms 
of social service be undertaken steadfastly holding forth 
the banner of the cross. Efforts are already inaugurated in 
Peking and elsewhere to enlist the interest of non-Christian 
students and others who have come recently into positions of 
influence, in schemes for the relief and uplift of various de- 
pressed and suffering classes in the community; but all such 
efforts acknowledged openly their Christian origin, motive, 
and object, and will contribute greatly to the advancement of 
the kingdom of Christ. Missions after the revolution will be 
increasingly practical, and, thus following their most practical 
Master, will surely grow also increasingly spiritual. 

There remain vast unoccupied areas where a beginning of 
evangelism has not yet been made, and the Chinese Church 
has no force prepared to do the work. The Christian educa- 
tional institutions already established are but as a drop in 
the bucket. Almost nothing has been done in the way of 
normal schools for the fitting of Chinese teachers. The evan- 
gelistic opportunity of the times among all grades of students 
in the government schools is almost unlimited for the for- 
eigner, either in direct work or through social and institutional 
efforts. Lectures on scientific, political, and social themes are 
finding a most unique opportunity to propagate Christianity 
as well. The training of Christian physicians, and the possi- 
bility of reaching the country as well as the city with the 
gospel, certified by a skilful, consecrated, tender ministry to 
the body, are but in their beginning. The day is surely coming 
when all these things can be done by the native Church of 
this then great republic; but no more fatal mistake could be 
made than to suppose that the time has yet come for the 
Christian Churches in Europe and America to withhold their 
hand from China's need. Missions after the revolution will 
show less undermanned stations with one man breaking under 
three men's work, less professional men doing laymen's work 
and neglecting perforce their expensively prepared profession, 
less laymen, perhaps, attempting the work of the professional; 
certainly less round tools working in square holes. 

— Dr. C. H. Fenn, Chinese Recorder, November, 1912. 

There are those who speak as though the end of the period 
of tutelage of the Church in China is not in sight by a century 



Present and Future of the Christian Church 273 

or two; others feel that the Western brother can do little 
more than stand by and advise, putting all actual responsibility 
on the shoulders of the Chinese leaders. The real solution 
will most likely be found between these extremes ; permanent 
solutions are thus usually found. There is an increasing num- 
ber of signs that this solution will involve a large measure of 
cooperation between Chinese leaders and foreign missionaries. 
The trial is already being made in more than one place, of a 
joint committee of Chinese and foreign missionaries entrusted 
with the control and management of the mission concerned. 
The National Committee of the Young Men's Christian Asso- 
ciation, as we learn from our Missionary News column, con- 
sists of forty-nine members — only seven of whom are for- 
eigners — and actually controls the foreign secretaries. With- 
out, however, attempting to categorically state the solution, 
we wish to remind the missionaries that there are a few im- 
portant points which must not drop out of sight during the 
attempt to find it. First, Chinese Christian workers are not 
going to submit to be under alien colleagues. Second, the 
republican ideals which now hold the field create a situation 
in missionary work for the handling of which there are no 
precedents. Third, there must be no seeking on the part of 
either side, especially on that of the missionary, for the "chief 
seat in the synagogue" simply because it is the "chief seat." 
— Editorial in the Chinese Recorder, February, 1913. 

The Sixth National Convention of the Young Men's 
Christian Association at Peking 

1. The Chinese Leadership. This was perhaps the most 
obvious impression as one studied the convention. The offi- 
cers, the convention committees, and nearly all of the speakers 
were Chinese. And they displayed an administrative ability, 
an enthusiasm, a resourcefulness, as well as a platform power, 
which would have left no doubt about the competence of the 
Chinese to conduct a great convention. This gathering had 
all the evidences of the elaborate forethought, attention to de- 
tail, the skilful utilizing of all human means making for effi- 
ciency and effectiveness which have come to characterize the 
meetings of the Student Movement the world over. The 
foreign secretaries were the helpers. They served literally, 
and in a finely self-effacing spirit. _ Their policy of taking 
their Chinese associates completely into their confidence and 
of giving them the responsibilities of leadership found abun- 
dant justification in this meeting. It is a vital principle. 

2. The Awakening of a National Christian Consciousness. 
This was made apparent by frequent references to the neces- 



274 The Emergency in China 

sity of having a Chinese Christian Church of national propor- 
tions. In fact, it was treated as axiomatic. Pastors, business 
and professional men, students, representing all sections and 
churches, assumed this in their speeches or assented to it as 
listeners, often with unrestrained applause. This convention 
was not only an index of this sentiment. It must have been 
itself a revelation of latent possibilities in the way of devel- 
oping a unified, nation-wide brotherhood in Christ. Imagine 
the feelings of the assembly when they saw delegates from 
Tokyo and Chengtu, from Canton and Mukden, meeting in the 
same hall, devoted to the same ideals, impelled by a common 
motive. Add to this the strong nationalistic spirit largely 
developed since the revolution, nowhere more intelligent and 
intense than among Christian students. 

3. Social Appeal. Personally, the force of this tendency 
came with much more surprise than the two just mentioned. 
The convention accentuated the fact that the heart of the 
Christian message to the students of China must be an appeal 
to social service. Where arguments to believe in Christ and 
secure personal salvation failed to grip, a summons to follow 
him for the sake of service to humanity won enthusiastic re- 
sponse. 

4. The Outlook for the Young Men's Christian Association. 
This is one of unbounded opportunity. One evidence of this 
is the changed attitude of the officials. The reception given 
the delegates on the afternoon of the opening day by the 
President of the Republic, and his words of strong commen- 
dation, were in effect a formal recognition of Christianity by 
the new government. The moral influence of this incident on 
Chinese Christians will be no small asset in missionary effort. 
A reply setting forth very clearly the aims of the Association 
was made by Mr. C. T. Wang, himself until recently Vice 
and Acting Minister of Commerce and Labor, but now an As- 
sociation secretary. Among those who addressed the meetings 
were the Premier of the Cabinet, the President and First 
Secretary of the Assembly — this latter himself an earnest 
Christian, led to Christ through the student work in Tokyo— 
and several others prominent in the Peking Government. 

— J. Leighton Stuart, Chinese Recorder, February, 1913. 

Practically it is obvious that, in every mission, transfers of 
duty and responsibility will have to be made. But let it not 
be done on either side under the impression that concessions 
are being made by foreigners to Chinese, and that they will 
be made unwillingly or with a grudge. Human nature is 
weak, and feelings of that kind will arise on both sides, but 



Present and Future of the Christian Church 275 

let us set ourselves to suppress them, and to put the whole 
matter on its real and natural footing. Our attitude should 
convey to our Chinese friends something like this : "Here are 
burdens which we have for long very imperfectly borne, which 
only your brotherly help has enabled us to bear at all. We 
rejoice in your growing numbers and in our experience of 
your growing fitness to take these responsibilities on your 
own shoulders. We know that in your intuitive knowledge of 
the heart and mind of your own people, your natural accepta- 
bility to your own countrymen, and your command of your 
mother tongue, you have many advantages in which we can 
never rival you. We believe that by our birth and training 
in older Christian communities we have some knowledge and 
experience of which you will be glad to make judicious and 
discriminating use. So far as you desire it we put ourselves 
and any knowledge or experience or capacity we have freely 
at your service." The reception of any such overtures on 
our part will depend, however, less on what we say than on 
what we have been. It must be a searching thought for every 
missionary to ponder, that we have, for good or evil left a 
picture of ourselves imprinted on the mind of the Chinese 
Church that knows us. We have been weighed and measured 
— God grant that we may not be found wholly wanting to 
them! 
— Dr. J. Campbell Gibson, Chinese Recorder, June, 1912. >- 

What of the future? . .' . It is with doubt and hesitancy 
that the following forecast is made: 1. As soon as law and 
order are restored, Christianity may be regarded with greater 
favor than before. The native religions, which long ago lost 
a great deal of their moral power, will suffer still more as the 
nation passes from the old civilization to the new, abandon- 
ing by the way many ancient customs, superstitions, and ob- 
servances more or less associated with the old religions. As 
the Chinese people must attempt to satisfy the deep religious 
needs of their nature, they may be willing to try Christianity, 
especially if they are under the impression that it is indissol- 
ubly connected with Western civilization. 2. Later, the pen- 
dulum of change will swing in the other direction. The vices 
and weakness of Western civilization will be more clearly seen, 
and the Chinese will know that Christianity does not dominate 
our national life to the extent they supposed. A movement 
will then begin in favor of retaining all that is best in the 
old civilization and religions, purifying and strengthening the 
latter, so that many of the arguments now directed against 
them will be useless. 3. No longer associated in the minds of 



276 The Emergency in China 

the Chinese with foreign power, the Christian Church will 
then become stationary, or even lose in membership, for those 
who have not strong and true convictions will fall away. In 
its struggle with the spirit of this world, and with what is 
false and imperfect in religion, Christianity must then stand 
in its own inherent strength. Its propagation will depend 
almost entirely upon the purity, earnestness, and intelligence 
of the native church. Foreigners will not then be in the front 
as they are now. 4. Chinese patriotism, almost defunct a few 
years ago, is now intense. The burning desire of all classes 
is to make their country invulnerable to the attacks and mach- 
inations of foreign powers. To meet the foreigners with their 
own weapons, the arts and sciences of Western civilization 
will be learned. Students will come in large numbers to the 
mission schools, which at the present time are the best in the 
country. Later, with one of her surprising leaps, China will 
inaugurate a thoroughly modern educational system, in all 
probability modeled on that of Japan, which includes all that 
is technically the best in the systems of other countries. This 
will mean the exclusion of religious teaching from the schools, 
its place being taken by the inculcation of the solitary virtue 
of patriotism. 5. These changes may all occur within the 
next twenty or thirty years. 

— Edward M. Merrins, Spirit of Missions, May, 1912. 



APPENDIXES 



Appendix A 279 



APPENDIX A 
The Orthography and Pronunciation of Chinese Names 

There is no entirely satisfactory method of representing 
all Chinese sounds in roman letters. Furthermore, in different 
parts of the empire many of those sounds materially vary. 
Early writers on China adopted the French spelling and pro- 
nunciation. Those who have followed have too often written — 
as travelers still do — every man that which is right in his own 
ears. Within the last forty years, however, the system of 
romanization of Sir Thomas Wade may be said to have 
become definitely established, and is indeed the only standard. 
As with any system, there are infelicities, but its general adop- 
tion in China renders advisable its use out of China as well. 
It should be studied by the aid of the appended key to 
pronunciation borrowed from Professor Beaches Dawn on the 
Hills of Tang. The vicious and intolerable mispronunciation 
of Chinese names now generally current ought thus to be 
gradually corrected. 

A few observations should be made on some exceptions to 
the use of Wade's system, and on the division and hyphenation 
of Chinese names. The names of a few Chinese cities have 
a well-recognized notation which it would be affectation to 
attempt to alter. It is as out of place to insist upon writing 
Kwangchow Fu for Canton, or T'ien-ching for Tientsin, as 
to set down Napoli and Bruxelles for Naples and Brussels. 
There are other words in which it is likewise inexpedient to 
sacrifice intelligibility to mechanical uniformity. In central 
China a final letter is often dropped, and thus grew up the 
notation Pekin and Nankin, instead of Peking and Nanking, 
which should always be used. There is an aspirate usually 
marked by an inverted apostrophe, as Ch'ien. 

The names of cities should not be written as one word — 
e.g., Paotingfu, but separately with or without capitals, either 
Pao Ting Fu or Pao-ting f u ; never Pao-ting-f u. The first two 
syllables are related in meaning (Guarding Tranquillity), 
while the third shows the rank of the city as prefectural 
(governing a group of county-seats). 



28o 



Appendix A 



The surname precedes the name and should always be 
separately written without the hyphen. If the personal name 
has two characters they may be written separately, or better 
connected by a hyphen. These principles may be illustrated 
in the three syllables connoting the designation of China's best 
modern statesman. Do not write Lihungchang; or Li-hung- 
chang; or Li-Hung-Chang ; but either Li Hung Chang, or 
(better) Li Hung-chang. 



a as in father 

ai as in aisle 

ao as ow in now 

*ch as j in /ar 

ch' as in change 

e as in p^rch 

e in eh, en, as in yet, when 

ei as ey in whey 

*hs as hss in hissing, when 

the first * is omitted 
i as in machine, when it 

stands alone or at the end 

of a word 
i as in pin, when before n 

and wg 
ia as eo in geology 
iao as e ou in me out 
ie as in siesta 
*ih as er in over 
iu as eu in jehu, when h is 

omitted 
*; as the first r in regular 
*k as g in game 
k' as k 



ng as in sing 
*o as oa in boa-constrictor 
ou as in though 
*p as b 
p' as p 

rh as rr in burr 
,w as in hiss 
*t as a* 
f as * 

*ta as ds in pads 
to' as in edits 
*tz as a\r in paa\y 
tz" as to in cats 
u as oo in too 
ua as <?£ o in sho? on 
wai as o ey in two eyes 
uei as way 
«« as ewy in screwy 
*# as final a in America 
*w as French w or German il 
*iia as French u plus a in an 
*iie as French w plus e in 
yet 



♦Those thus marked have no close English equivalents. 
Consonants followed by an aspirate (') are almost like the 
same in English; the same consonants without the aspirate 
are more difficult to correctly pronounce. 



Appendix B 281 



APPENDIX B 

BIBLIOGRAPHY 

Country and People 

Williams, S. W. The Middle Kingdom. 2 Vols. (Second 
edition, '83.) Charles Scribner's Sons, New York. $9.00. 
The standard reference work in English, treating China 
for the last century. The chapters on government, litera- 
ture, religions, and history are especially valuable. 

Smith, Arthur H. Chinese Characteristics. 1894. Fleming 
H. Revell Company, New York. $2.00. 

A most entertaining account of the characteristics of 
the Chinese by a keen observer and brilliant writer. The 
presentation inclines toward satire. 

Smith, Arthur H. Village Life in China. 1900. Fleming H. 
Revell Company, New York. $2.00. 

The author is not a trained sociologist, but has unusual 
powers of observation and description. The book fills a 
unique place. 

McCormick, Frederick. The Flowery Republic. 1913. D. 
Appleton & Co., New York. $2.50. 

Detailed description of the events of the Chinese revo- 
lution by the well-known correspondent, who saw many 
of the events at close range. 

Ross, E. A. The Changing Chinese. 191 1. The Century 
Company, New York. $2.50. 

Written by a professor of sociology, this book contains 
much that would escape the ordinary observer. Perhaps 
the most readable of the recent books. 

Reinsch, P. S. Intellectual and Political Currents in the Far 
East. 191 1. Houghton, Mifflin Company, New York. 
$2.00. 

Another work by a university professor and careful 
student of the East. Three very thoughtful chapters on 
China. The author seems too appreciative of Buddhism. 

Gascoyne-Cecil, Lord William. Changing China. 1910. D. 
Appleton & Co., New York. $2.00. 

A record of a survey of China^ made in behalf of the 
United Universities Scheme. Discussions from educa- 
tional and missionary standpoints. 



282 Appendix B 

Blakeslee, G. H., editor. China and the Far East. 1910. 
T. Y. Crowell Company, New York. $2.00. 

A symposium of addresses delivered at Clark University 
in 1909 by many experts. Treats political, social, and 
religious conditions. A similar symposium is appearing 
in the Journal of Race Development for 1913. 

China — Social and Economic Conditions. A series of papers 
by American students of China and Chinese writers. 

Ball, J. Dyer. The Chinese at Home. 191 3. Fleming H. 
Revell Company, New York. $2.00, net. 

Written by an authority on China. He treats in detail 
many phases of Chinese life. 

Brown, Arthur J. The Chinese Revolution. 1912. Student 
Volunteer Movement, New York. 75 cents. 

An interesting sketch of the present situation, _ with 
parts of the author's New Forces in Old China incor- 
porated. 

The China Year Book (Bell and Woodhead). 1912-1913. 
Dutton, New York. $3.00. 

A valuable collection of facts and statistics relating to 
China. The latest volume is especially interesting as 
furnishing such full information on the Chinese Republic. 

Special Subjects 

Chang Chih-tung. China's Only Hope. 1900. Translated by 

S. I. Woodbridge. Fleming H. Revell Company, New 

York, 75 cents. 
A trumpet-call to the nation written in 1898. A book 

that has exerted an immense influence. 
Douglas, Robert K. China (Story of the Nations Series). 

Revised. 1901. G. P. Putnam's Sons, New York. $1.50. 
A history of China, giving special attention to the last 

three centuries. Rather anti-Chinese in tone. 
Smith, Arthur H. China and America To-day. 1907. Fleming 

H. Revell Company, New York. $1.25, net. 

More appreciative of the Chinese than most of Dr. 

Smith's books, and emphasizes America's duty to China. 
Macgowan, J. Men and Manners in Modern China. 1912. 

Dodd, Mead and Company, New York. $3-50- 

Sketches by one who lived long in China and had ex- 
ceptional first-hand knowledge. Exceedingly readable and 

to the point. 
Bland, J. O. P. Recent Events and Present Policies in China. 

1912. Lippincott & Co., Philadelphia. $4.00. 



Appendix B 283 

A book full of personal bias against republican govern- 
ment, political reform, anti-opium crusade, etc., but with 
valuable information on many important subjects. 
Cantlie, James, & C. Sheridan Jones. Sun Yat Sen and the 
Awakening of China. 1912. Fleming H. Revell Company, 
New York. $1.25. 

Poorly written and containing inaccuracies of statement, 
but interesting on account of the author's close acquaint- 
ance with a remarkable man. 
Burton, Margaret E. Education of Women in China. 191 1. 
Fleming H. Revell Company, New York. $1.25. 

Generally considered to be the most authoritative treat- 
ment of this subject. 
Burton, Margaret E. Notable Women in Modern China. 
1912. Fleming H. Revell Company, New York. $1.25. 

Attractively written sketches of the lives of six 
Christian Chinese women who are strong testimonies to 
the power of Christianity. 
Morse, H. B. The Trade and Administration of the Chinese 
Empire. 1908. Longman's, Green & Co., New York. 
$2.50, net. 

Generally considered to be the most authoritative treat- 
ment of this subject. 



Religions 

DeGroot, J. J. M. Religion in China. 1912. Putnam, New 
York. $1.50. 

Buddhism is omitted and Confucianism and Taoism 
treated more fully than in his previous volume. 
Douglas, Robert K. Confucianism and Taoism. Revised. 
1906. E. S. Gorham, New York. 75 cents. 

One of the most satisfactory statements of the precepts 
of China's indigenous religions to be found in brief com- 
pass. 
Legge, James. The Religions of China. 1881. Charles Scrib- 
ner's Sons, New York. $1.50. 

Four lectures delivered on Confucianism and Taoism, 
including a comparison with Christianity, by one of the 
ablest English authorities. 
Beal, S. Buddhism in China. 1884. E. S. Gorham, New 
York. 75 cents. 

An account of the introduction and history of Buddhism 
in China, with a valuable statement of the northern view 
of Buddha and his teaching. 



284 Appendix B 

Missions 

The China Mission Year Book, volumes for 1910, 191 1, and 

1912. Missionary Education Movement, New York. $1.50. 

Annual survey of missionary work and its setting which 

is indispensable. The many phases of work are treated 

by specially qualified writers. 

Centenary Missionary Conference Report, Shanghai, China, 
1907. American Tract Society, New York. $2.50, net. 

Contains resolutions and discussions of the Centenary 
Conference of 1,000 missionaries assembled in Shanghai 
in 1907. No student of missions in China can afford to 
ignore this volume. 

World Missionary Conference Report, Edinburgh, 1910. Flem- 
ing H. Revell Company, New York. 9 vols. $5.00. 

These reports lead up to weighty conclusions as to the 
principles of missionary work. China bulks large in the 
whole discussion. 

Headland, Isaac T. China's New Day. 1912. Central Com- 
mittee on the United Study of Missions, West Medford, 
Mass. Cloth, 50 cents ; paper, 30 cents. 

Prepared as a text-book for the Central Committee on 
the United Study of Missions. 

Fisher, D. W. Calvin Wilson Mateer. 191 1. Westminster 
Press, Philadelphia. $1.50, net. 

The life of a strong man who did a great work oi 
education and Bible translation in China. 

Soothill, W. E. A typical Mission in China. 1906. Fleming 
H. Revell Company, New York. $1.50. 

Mission problems and mission methods discussed by 
one who has a keen sense of the needs of ^ China. It con- 
tains most valuable information on the social and religious 
life of the Chinese.^ 

Gibson, J. Campbell. Mission Problems and Mission Methods 
in South China. 191 1. Fleming H. Revell Company, New 
York. $1.50. 

An exceedingly well-written volume, treating missionary 
problems, their failures, successes, and achievements, in 
a scientific and statesmanlike manner. 

Osgood, E. I. Breaking Down Chinese Walls. 1908. Fleming 
H. Revell Company, New York. $1.00. 

An interestingly written account by one who has con- 
ducted a hospital and dispensary in China for eight years, 
preaching the gospel and healing the sick in the villages 
round about. 

Kilborn, Omar L. Heal the Sick. 1910. Missionary Society 



Appendix B 285 

of the Methodist Church, Toronto. 50 cents, cloth; 35 
cents, paper. 

Story of medical missions as carried on by a Canadian 
missionary in West China. Contains two chapters on the 
Canadian Methodist Medical Work. 
The Chinese Recorder, published by the American Presby- 
terian Mission Press, Shanghai, monthly. $1.75 a year, 
postpaid. 

Represents the missionary interests of China, with 
articles of great variety and value. Indispensable for those 
who wish to keep in close touch with missionary work in 
China. 
The International Review of Missions. 

Represents the Continuation Committee of the Edin- 
burgh Missionary Conference. The articles are of high 
grade and will appeal most to thoughtful students of 
missions. 
The East and the West, published by the Society for the 
Propagation of the Gospel, London. May be ordered from 
Tice & Lynch, 16 Beaver Street, New York City, at 
$1.14 a year, postpaid. 

Published by an Anglican Society, but contains many 
articles by non-Anglican writers. For the most part treats 
large issues in a very suggestive way. 



286 Appendix C 



APPENDIX C 

Area and Population 1 

Chinese Empire 

Popula- 
tion per 

Square miles Population sq. mile 

China Proper 1,532,420 407.335,305 266 

Dependencies : 

Manchuria 363,610 16,000,000 44 

Mongolia 1,367,600 2,600,000 2 

Tibet 463,200 6,500,000 14 

Sinkiang 550,340 1,200,000 2 

Total 4,277,170 433,635,305 101 



Provinces of China 

Anhwei 54,8io 23,670,314 432 

Chekiang 36,670 11,580,692 316 

Kiangsi . 69,480 26,532,125 382 

Kiangsu 38,600 13,980,235 3^2 

Chihli 115,800 20,937,000 180 

Fukien 46,320 22,876,540 494 

Honan 67,940 35,3i6,8oo 520 

Hunan 83,380 22,169,673 266 

Hupeh 71,410 35,280,685 492 

Kansu 125,450 10,385,376 82 

Kwangsi 77,200 5,142,330 67 

Kwangtung 99,970 31,865,251 319 

Kweichow 67,160 7,650,282 114 

Shansi 81,830 12,200,456 149 

Shantung 55,970 38,247,900 6S3 

Shensi 75,270 8,450,182 in 

Szechwan 218,480 68,724,890 314 

Yunnan 146,680 12,324,574 84 

Total 1,532,420 407,335,305 266 

1 Statesman's Year-Book, 1912. (Corrected total of popula- 
tion.) 



Appendix C 



287 



Early Estimates of Population 

Table below shows the estimated population at various 
dates (obtained from various sources and abstracted chiefly 
from The Middle Kingdom) and the latest official estimates 
of the population: 1 



A. D. 1381 59,850,000 

1412 65,377,ooo 

1580 60,692,000 

1662 21,068,600 

1668 25,386,209 

1710 f 23,312,200 

( 27,241,129 

171 1 28,241,129 

1736 125,046,245 

f 157,343,975 

1743 s 149,332,730 

1 150,265475 

1753 103,050,600 



A. D. 1760 f 143,125,225 

1 203,916,477 

1761 205,293,053 

1762 198,214,553 

1790 155,249,897 

1792 1307,467,200 

1333,000,000 

1812 (362,467,183 

( 360,440,000 

1842 413,021,000 

1868 404,946,514 

1881 380,000,000 

1882 381,309,000 

1885 377*636,000 



Comparison of Censuses Recently Taken 1 

Mr. Tenney's Peking The Na- 

Figures Daily News tional Review 
18 Provinces and 

Manchuria 331,188,000 307,919,410 357,919,4™ 

Manchu Bannermen, 

etc 2,460,000 2,286,520 2,286,520 

Sinkiang 2,491,000 2,243,895 2,243,895 

Tibet 6,500,000 

Total 342,639,000 312,449,825 362449,825 

1 China Year Book, 1913. 

3 China Mission Year Book, 1912. 



288 Appendix D 



APPENDIX D 

Dates of Important Events in Modern Chinese History 
A.D. 

1275 Marco Polo arrived at Court of Kublai Khan. 
1516 Portuguese arrived at Canton. 
1 S7S Spanish arrived at Canton. 

1580 Father Roger and Matteo Ricci entered Canton. 
1622 Dutch arrived in China. 
1635 English arrived at Canton. 
1660 Tea first carried to England. 

1670 Beginning of trade with the East India Company. 
1719 Beginning of commerce with Russia. 
1784 First American merchant vessel left New York for 

China. 
1792 Earl Macartney received by the emperor. 
1816 Lord Amherst's unsuccessful embassy. 
1834 Opium dispute begins. 
1839 Beginning of war with Great Britain. 
1842 August 29, treaty of peace signed at Nanking. 
1844 July 3, first treaty between United States and China. 
1859 November 24, commercial treaty with the United 

States. 
i860 October 13, British and French capture Peking. 
1864 Taiping rebellion crushed. 
1868 Burlingame treaty signed. 
1870 June 21, Tientsin massacre. 
1873 June 29, foreign ministers received in audience by the 

emperor. 
1875 Death of Emperor Tung Chi, and accession of Kuang 

Hsu. 
1880 November 17, new treaty with the United States signed. 

1887 February, assumption of government by the Emperor 

Kuang Hsu. 

1888 American exclusion acts against Chinese passed. 
1891 Anti-foreign riots in the Yangtze valley. 

1894 War with Japan, concluded in 1905. 

1897 November, seizure of Kiaochow by Germany. 

1898 March, Russia leases Port Arthur of China. 
1898 Reform edicts by the emperor. 

1898 Counter edicts by the empress dowager, and dethrone- 
ment of the emperor. 



Appendix D 289 

1899 Rise of the Boxer movement. 

1900 June 17, capture of Taku forts by the allies. 

1900 June 20, murder of the German minister. Siege of the 

legations in Peking. 

1900 August 14, relief of the Peking legations by allies. 

1900 August 15, flight of the court to Sianfu. 

1900 September 9, signing of the peace protocol. 

1902 January, return of the court to Peking. 

1904 February 8 to September 5, 1905, war between Japan 

and Russia. 

1905 December, dispatch of two imperial commissions to 

America and Europe to study constitutional govern- 
ment. 
1905 Abolition of old style civil service examination. 

1905 Adoption of Occidental system of education. 

1906 Issue of imperial edict against opium. 

1907 Extension of educational privileges to women. 

1909 Introduction of Provincial Councils. 

1910 Meeting of National Assembly. 

191 1 Beginning of the revolution. 

1912 Imperial decree of abdication by Manchu clan. 

1912 January 1, Sun Yat-sen became provisional President 

at Nanking. 
1912 February 14, Sun Yat-sen resigned the provisional 

Presidency. 

1912 March 10, Yuan Shih-kai took oath as provisional 

President at Peking, uniting North and South. 

1913 April 8, National Assembly met to form a Constitution. 
1913 May, Republic of China recognized by United States. 



290 



Appendix E 



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Appendix F 291 



APPENDIX F 

Opium 

Opium Edict, 1 September 20, 1906 

1. Farmers are forbidden to plant new ground to poppies, 
and the area now used for that purpose must be diminished 
ten per cent, each year, and cease entirely at the end of the 
tenth year. 

2. All persons who use opium are required to register 
their names with the police and obtain permits which will 
allow them to purchase a given quantity of the drug at cer- 
tain periods. All persons over sixty years of age may con- 
tinue its use as at present, but all persons under that age 
will be required to reduce their consumption by twenty per 
cent, yearly, and cease to use it entirely at the end of five 
years. The permits are to be renewed annually, and the allow- 
ance indicated upon^ them will be reduced twenty per cent 
in time and in quantity. At the end of the five years, persons 
under sixty-five years of age who continue to use opium will 
be compelled to wear a distinctive badge which will advertise 
them publicly as opium fiends. 

3. All government officials, even princes, dukes, viceroys, 
and generals, less than sixty years of age, must give up the 
habit within six months or tender their resignations^ 

4. All teachers and students must abandon the habit within 
one year. 

5. All officers of the army and navy must abandon the 
habit at once. 

6. Dealers in opium are required to take out licenses, and 
to report all purchases and sales to the police. Their pur- 
chases of stock must decrease annually at the rate of twenty 
per cent., and at the end of five years must cease altogether. 

7. The number of licenses issued will decrease in the 
same proportion, so that the opium shops will be abolished 
gradually. 

8. The sale of pipes, lamps, and other smoking appliances 
must cease within the year. 

1 The Baptist Missionary Magazine, April, 1907. 



292 Appendix F 

9. All places of public resort for opium smoking are to 
be closed, and those who are addicted to the habit must prac- 
tise it at their own homes. 

10. Violations of this law are to be punished by the im- 
prisonment of the offenders and by the confiscation of all 
their property. 

11. The importation of morphia and other medicinal forms 
of opium and hypodermic syringes is permitted under most 
stringent regulations, and the sale limited to practising physi- 
cians. 

12. The government will establish dispensaries at which 
medicines to counteract the craving for opium will be furnished 
to the public free of cost. 

The Revolution and Opium 1 

The Revolution proved a serious set-back to the cause of 
opium suppression. In a number of provinces where poppy 
cultivation had previously been stamped out or was rapidly 
disappearing the plant reappeared, sometimes under official 
encouragement. The republican government, however, adopted 
the same attitude toward the opium question as its predecessor, 
and endeavored to enforce the regulations against opium- 
smoking and the cultivation of the poppy. Its efforts were 
not invariably successful. But while a large opium crop was 
being harvested in many parts of China, the foreign opium 
trade was systematically obstructed. On September 16 seven 
chests of Malwa Opium were seized at Anking by the military 
governor's orders and were publicly burnt. After making 
strong representations on the subject, the British Consul- 
General at Shanghai proceeded to Anking on a British man- 
of-war for a personal discussion with the governor. In 
Shanghai the obstruction placed in the way of the trade led 
to the accumulation of stocks of Indian opium of a value of 
£11,000,000. The matter was referred by the consular body 
at that port to the diplomatic corps in Peking, and on Decem- 
ber 15 the British minister "warned the Chinese government 
that, unless unequivocal assurances were immediately forth- 
coming that it was the intention of China to observe the 
Agreement (of May, 1911), he would be compelled to advise 
his government that remonstrances were ineffective. ,, 
Opium merchants in India petitioned the Indian government 
toward the end of December for the immediate stoppage for 
the present of sales of opium for export to China. A 
Presidential Mandate issued on December 25, 1912, dealt with 
the subject of opium, but without offering a direct reply to 
the representations made by the British minister. 
1 China Year Book, 1913, p. 644. 



Appendix G 



293 



APPENDIX G 



Unoccupied Fields 

Statistics relating to Missionary Occupation of the Chinese 
Republic. 

Popu- Mission Mis- Number of 

Area in Number of lat. per Sta- sion- People per 

Province sq. miles Inhabitants sq. mile tions aries Missionary 

Anhwei 54,8io 23,670,314 432 22 123 192,458 

Chekiang 36,670 11,580,692 316 30 301 38,472 

Chihli 115,800 20,937,000 180 26 277 75,6oo 

Fukien 46,320 22,876,540 494 42 378 60,503 

Honan 67,940 35,3i6,8oo 520 33 165 214,041 

Hunan 83,380 22,169,673 266 19 184 120,484 

Hupeh 71,410 35,280,685 492 31 280 126,000 

Kansu 125,450 10,385,376 82 17 70 148,371 

Kiangsi 69,480 26,532,125 382 37 169 156,994 

Kiangsu 38,610 13,980,235 362 19 503 47,674 

Kwangsi 77,200 5,142,330 67 8 50 102,840 

Kwangtung .. 99,97o 31,865,251 319 56 471 67,654 

Kweichow ... 67,160 7,650,282 114 6 23 332,609 

Manchuria . . . 363,610 16,000,000 44 24 107 149,523 

Mongolia 1,367,600 2,600,000 2 4 10 260,000 

Shansi 81,830 12,200,456 149 35 145 84,138 

Shantung 55,970 38,247,900 683 32 343 111,510 

Shensi 75,270 8,450,182 in 27 95 88,947 

Sinkiang 550,340 1,200,000 2 3 18 66,667 

Szechwan 218,480 68,724,800 314 47 386 178,044 

Tibet 463,200 6,500,000 14 

Yunnan 146,680 12,324,574 84 9 39 316,014 

Total ...4,277,170 433,635,305 101 527 4,137 104,818 



294 Appendix H 



APPENDIX H 
Railway Systems 

/. Northern System 

Manchurian Lines. — There are 2,430 miles of railway in 
Manchuria, already completed and in operation. About 338 
miles are under construction, and 4,760 are projected. Since 
the war between Russia and japan, the control of the railways 
in Manchuria has almost entirely passed out of the hands of 
the Chinese. About two thirds are Russian and Japanese. 

Shansi-M ongolian Line.- -In this system a line of 125 miles 
has been built from Peking to Kalgan. It was constructed 
without foreign assistance by Jeme Tien-yu, an able and effi- 
cient Chinese engineer, educated at Yale University. The 
work has been well done, and is an evidence of the ability 
of the Chinese to build their own roads. This line is to be 
extended through the Province of Shansi, and eventually will 
pass through Mongolia and connect with the Trans-Siberian 
Railway, "which will reduce the transit period between Europe 
and the Chinese capital by about two days travel, bringing 
Peking within ten days of Paris." 

//. Central System 

Peking-Hankow Line. — The most important road in this sys- 
tem is the Peking-Hankow line of 755 miles, which has been 
in operation for about five years. It was constructed by 
Belgian engineers, but is now owned and controlled by the 
Chinese government. 

Tientsin-Pukow Line. — Another line connecting the North 
with the Yangtze is the Tientsin-Pukow Railway, which joins 
Tientsin with Pukow, a city on the Yangtze opposite Nanking. 
The northern half, 2^2, miles, was built by the Germans and 
the southern half, 240 miles, by the British. The line has been 
recently completed and is now in operation with regular train 
service. A traveler may leave Shanghai by the Shanghai-Nan- 
king Railway, and then crossing the river to Pukow may pro- 
ceed on his journey by the Tientsin-Pukow Railway to 
Tientsin, whence he may travel by rail through Manchuria and 



Appendix H 295 

take the Trans-Siberian train to Europe. Thus Shanghai and 
Calais are now connected by rail. As the line passes through 
those districts of the country most often visited by floods and 
famines, it will be a means of bringing more speedy relief to 
the suffering people when these calamities occur. The capital 
has been rendered far more accessible for it is possible now 
to reach Peking from Shanghai in 36 hours. 

Other Proposed Lines. — Many other lines are in process of 
construction in this system, and the Chinese are anxious to 
build branch lines in connection with the trunk systems, so 
that local industries may be developed. The former govern- 
ment contemplated the construction of a line 1,250 miles long 
to connect Ilifu. on the western frontier, with Peking. This 
would call for a vast expenditure of capital and it may be some 
time before the project is again taken in hand. 

Summary of This System. — The railways now in operation 
in this division aggregate 2,038 miles. Up to the time of the 
revolution 680 miles additional were in process of construction, 
and 3,095 miles had been surveyed or projected. The map 
on page S3 will show how much this system will be de- 
veloped. 

777. The Midland or Yangtze Valley System 

m Two Constructed Lines. — In this system the Shanghai-Nan- 
king Railway, 193 miles, and the Shanghai-Hangchow Railway, 
125 miles, have already been constructed. 

Projected Hankow-Chengtu Line. — Of the utmost importance 
will be the Hankow-Ichang-Chengtu line, which will span a 
distance of 800 miles and will make access to the wonderfully 
rich Province of Szechwan far easier than it is at present. 
The rapids in the Yangtze gorges have all along been the 
great hindrance to the development of trade in this part of 
China. Thus far but a short portion of the road has been 
completed and many difficult engineering problems will have 
to be met and conquered by the Chinese engineers who have 
the work in hand. As the cost is unusual, the Chinese have 
found difficulty in financing it, and the use of a portion of the 
Five Nations Loan for this purpose is contemplated. 

Problems and Results. — Owing to the splendid waterways in 
Central China, especially in the lower Yangtze Valley, it has 
not been easy for the railways to compete with the boat traffic. 
This is largely due to the fact that goods are taxed in transit 
at various likin x stations along the line. If the likin barriers 

1 Likin stations are small customs barriers erected along the waterways of 
China where commodities in transit have to pay toll or excise duties. 



296 Appendix H 

were done away with, the railroads would undoubtedly pro- 
duce a handsome profit. Altogether this system has 328 miles 
in operation, 300 miles actually in course of construction, and 
some 1,300 miles surveyed or projected. 



IV. Southern System 



Three Important Features. — The three important features of 
this system are: 1. The slow advancement of the work on the 
Canton-Hankow Railway, the great north and south line which 
will connect with the Peking-Hankow Railway and thus unite 
Canton with the capital ; 2. the construction of a large number 
of small lines connecting Canton, Hongkong, and Macao; and 
3. the proposed system of railways in the Provinces of 
Kwangtung and Kwangsi to join the Canton-Hankow Railway 
with the interior and eventually with the railways on the 
western and southern borders. 

American Initial Relation and Summary. — It will be remem- 
bered that the concession for building the Canton-Hankow 
Railway was first granted to an American syndicate, and that, 
owing to mismanagement far from creditable, it was finally 
sold back to China. This system has 314 miles in operation, 
384 miles in actual course of construction and some 2,000 
miles surveyed or projected. 



V. Southwestern System 



Lines Toward French Territory. — In this system the French 
have completed the Yunnan- Anam Railway from Laokai on the 
China-Tongking frontier to Yunnan, the capital of the province 
by that name, a distance of about 310 miles. The Yunnan- 
Szechwan Railway has been surveyed and a large amount of 
capital has been raised for its construction. This line from 
the south may be the first connecting the rich Province of 
Szechwan with the sea, through French territory. It will 
tap a marvelous country, and the mines in Yunnan of tin, 
antimony, iron, and coal will find an easy outlet to the sea. 

Prospective British Connections and Summary. — Of the 
projected lines the most interesting are those that will connect 
the Province of Yunnan with the British lines in Burma. Only 
one railway is in operation — the Laokai- Yunnan, but about 
i;573 miles have been projected and partly surveyed. 



Statistics of the Work of Protestant Missions in China for 1910 



From the China Mission Year Book, 1912. 



OF SOCIETY 



FOHEIGN Ml' .in .11 

Total Staff. 



Educational Work. 



Day 01 Primary Schools. 



Chinese Christian Church. 



HR1TISH SuCIKTlES. 



Baptist Missionary Soelel S' 

l,,.,l,n i Zi ii:iiiy Mission . . 
chirm Inline! Mission 01) 
( 'In Isliun M isslons ill 11111111 



Brlllnl 

\. mil 



i'ly of Scotland 

Colonial and Continental Societies. 



Educational Societies. 

Allgemelnos Evancellschc Protcstantischer 

(anion Medn 

< nilcee and I nlvrrsity Moliiul Schools 






Totals Y. 
Totals Y. 



I'll 



CD Including Boarding Scl Is 

( '" ""iiw. 1 

' ',.: IS 
'■ "'III. 

W) Student ■ 

' Association. 



t.90 1.500 1,322 5.14-1 
7 1.379 4.02S 



64S 5.3114 
502 7.2S1 



"I, 



I I ,-. 
3,64 ! 



8.708 14.782 
2.5.57 10.027 



15.215 
10.537 



751.00 
150.00 

' 780.01 

l l. If,,: hi 

'- ,vi so 

170111.1 

50.00S.03 

18,157.50 



167,075 
177.942 



480.00 

I 2.3(12.8(1 

I'.l. I. Ill 

I !..,,, (Ill 



.'.(111 11(1 

142.00 



.. ...l,n no 
8,(14(1.67 



I/,, I. ,11. Ill) 

200.00 
105.55 



320.900.62 
297.976.63 



:S3S 

"3.118 
15.568 
91.414 



29,696 
H3.648 



20.000 
' '3.000 



37.116 



1,272.066 
151 312.480 1,021.002 



Statistics Included In A.P.M. Report. 
' ' hlnese contributions. 

ividows. 

The R.T.S. has supervision of the Tract Societies 
of China at nine dlefcrenl centers. 



Including dispensary patients. 
Incomplete returns. 

Including 
* Returns not to 1 



Church Mission, 



Mrs. Kerr of 
atistlcs for West 



With the China Inland Mission 
following Societies: Finland Fre 

Tleheio'cU 'm Isslon. Norwegian 
Mission. Norwegian Mir-'— ' ' 



Ceriomi ' 'liltm 



China Alliance Mission. 



Mission In China, and Swedish 1 



INDEX 



(The variation in the pronunciation of words, such as Tangf(rang), Tao (Dow), 
comes from the presence or absence^of the aspirate mentioned on page 270. The 
tendency is not to indicate this in the English printing.) 



Abdication, edict of, 42 

Address to Christians by H. 
E. Yen Hui-ching, 63 

Advisory Provincial Assem- 
blies, 27, 58 

Aggression, foreign, 23 

Agnosticism finding entrance, 
169, 191 

Agriculture the main occupa- 
tion, 85 

Aliens in China, 7 

Alliance of Great Britain and 
France, 17 

Alphabet needed, a Chinese, 
153 ; ideographs, a problem, 

165 

Altar of Heaven, 185 

Altruism, beneficent, of med- 
ical missions, 221, 222; need 
of Christian, in dealing with 
China, 32 

American and Chinese citizen- 
ship compared, 54, 57; early 
finances, 65 

American Bible Society's 
work, 230 

Amherst, Lord, mission to 
China, 10, 11 

Amoy, is, 231 

An Exhortation to Learn, 
book by H. E. Chang Chih- 
tung. 150 

Ancestral worship, 183, 185 ; 



and Christianity, 192; indi- 
vidualism and, 193 

Andrade, Fernao Peres de, re- 
ferred to, 6 

Animism, 182, 187 

Annals of the American 
Academy of Political and 
Social Science, quoted, 52, 
104 

Anti-opium Society, 113, 219 

Appeal of the gospel, 239, 240 

Area and population : Chinese 
Empire, 51, 286; early esti- 
mates of population, 287; 
Provinces of China, 286 

Aristotle, 164 

Arrow war, the, 15-17 

Arsenals, 98 

Athletics, 133; cause of in- 
terest in, 135 ; training, 135 

Attitude toward Christianity, 
201 

Awakening of China, causes 
of, 215 

B 

Baptist Missionary Magazine t 

quoted, 291 
Barbarians, all Westerners 

viewed as, 8 
Benevolence, book by Tan 

Sze-tong, referred to, 198 
Bergen, Dr. Paul D., quoted, 

176 



299 



3oo 



Index 



Bible Societies, 230, 232 

Bibliography, country and 
people, 281; missions, 284; 
religions, 283; special sub- 
jects, 282 

Bitton, Rev. Nelson, quoted, 
72, 271 

Bland, J. O. B., quoted, 70, 
137, 209 

Blind, asylums for, 223 

Board of Education appoint- 
ed, 26 

Bogue forts, 9 

Bondfield, Rev. G. H., quoted, 
74, 138, 211 

Book of Rites, 131 

Boxer outbreak, 25, 26, 149; 
use of the indemnity fund, 

159 
Brent, Bishop, 114 
Bret Harte, referred to, 130 
Brinkley, Captain Frank, 

quoted, 3 
British and Foreign Bible So- 
ciety, 230 
Brown, Rev. S. R., 20 
Bruce, Sir Frederick, 19 
Buddhism, 181, 187, 189, 198, 
199, 229; influence of its 
early missionaries, 5 
Buddhist ruler in Outer Mon- 
golia, 45, 46 
Burlingame, Anson, 19 
Burton, Ernest D., quoted, 34 



California, coolies in, 17 
Calls from the Head of the 

Church, 268-270 
Canonical books, the Chinese, 

144 

Cantlie, Dr., dean of Hong- 
kong College of Medicine, 
40 

Canton, a treaty port, 15, 17; 



English at, 9; opium com- 
missioner at, 13 

Canton Christian College 
Notes, quoted, 177 

Canton's Christian Commis- 
sioner of Education, 158 

Capen, E. W., quoted, 105, 
174, 241 

Carlyle, Thomas, quoted, 109 

Centenary Mission Conference 
resolution, 236 

Chang Chih-tung (Jang Jer- 
doong), quoted, 33, 150, 173 

Chang Chin-wu (Jang Jm- 
woo), 49 

Chang-chun (Jang-joon), 47 

Chang Pin-lin (Jang Pin-lm), 
199 

Changes, in China, 4; in 
Japan, 3 

Changing Chinese, The, quot- 
ed, 93, 128, 217, 228, 240, 252 

Character the object in edu- 
cation, 166 

Charles I of England, 9 

Chekiang (Jegeang), 248. 

Cheng Chang-lu (Jung Jang- 
loo), quoted, 32 

Chengtu (Jungdoo), 98, 274 

Chentung Liang-Cheng 
(Jungdoong Leang-Chung), 
21 

Chihli (Je-le), 156 

Child labor, 92 

China and the powers, 32 

China Mission Year Book, 
191 1, 1912, quoted, 76, 139, 
261, 262, 267, 287, 292 

China Year Book, 1912, 1913, 
quoted, 76, 210, 218, 220, 
246, 287, 292 

China's civilization, character 
of, 4; early attitude to for- 
eigners, 5; later, 6 

China's Only Hope, quoted, 
33, 150, 173 



Index 



301 



Chinese classics and moral 
teaching, 164; new educa- 
tion and agnosticism, 169 

"Chinese Oxford Movement," 
197 

Chinese Recorder, quoted, 53, 
71, 74, 106, 138, 175, 176, 
177, 209, 211, 240, 242, 271, 

2p, 275 

Chinese students in United 

States, 148, 149, 159, 160 
Ching Chun-wang ( J 1 n g 

Joon-wang), quoted, 34 
Chin-shih (Jin-she), 45 
Christ. See Jesus Christ 
Christian Education of Wom- 
en in the East, The, quoted, 

139 . 
Christian Literary Society, 220 
Christian Missions in China. 

See Missions, Protestant 
Christianity, advocated by 

prominent men, 63, 64 ; need 

for, 68, 93, 94 
Christians, massacre of, 6; 

meeting of in Peking, 63; 

service in revolution, 202 
Chungking (Choong-king), 

231 
Church control of schools, 170 
Church in the Mission Field, 

The, quoted, 249, 251 
Church unity, 257, 260-263 
Civil service examinations, 

old-time, 22; abolished, 26 
"Closed door" policy, 7 
Clothes, philosophy of, and 

changes in, 129, 130 
Coalition cabinet, 43 
Coal districts, 95 
Coal mining company, 82 
Co-hong, the, 12 
College degrees, old style, 144, 

145 
College of the Hanlin, 145 



Commercial dealings with 

England, 9-12 
Common tongue to be devel- 
oped, 86 
Confucianism, 181, 184-186, 

196, 197 
Confucius, teachings of, 98; 

worship of, abolished in 

schools, 158 
Constitutional government 

promised, 26, 42, 58 
Constructive work of new 

government, 50 
Converts, changed lives of, 

228, 229 
Coolie class, marked early 

Chinese in United States, 

160 
Coolie traffic, the, 17 
Cooperation in educational 

work, 169 
Copper ore, 97 
Corvino, John de, 6 
Costume and etiquette, no, 

129-133 
Cotton, 89 
Crisp loan, 45 
Criticism of missions, 233- 

238; Chinese approval, 235 
Cruelty to prisoners, Chinese, 

18 
Cuba, coolies in, 17 
Cue-cutting, 130 
Curzon, Lord, quoted, 69 

D 

Daily paper, the, 170 
Dalai Lama, the, 48 
Darwin widely read, 191 
Dates relating to modern 

Chinese history, 288 
Deaf mutes taught, 224 
Deaths of Emperor and Em- 
press Dowager, 28 
Degrees, old-time college, 144, 
145 



302 



Index 



De Groot, J. J. M., quoted, 

181, 202, 208 
Demonology, Chinese, 188 
Disarmament Society, 33 
Dockyards, 98 
Dubose, Dr. H. C, referred 

to, 113 



East and the West, The, quot- 
ed, 72, 105, 174, 241, 265, 271 
East India Company, 10, 11 
Eastern and Western civiliza- 
tions contrasted, 5 
Eastern Inner Mongolia, 47 
Eclecticism, tendency toward, 

199 
Economic development looked 

for, 62 
Edict of abdication, 42 
Edinburgh World Missionary 
Conference Report, quoted, 
173, 249, 251 
Education, chart, 151; Chi- 
nese, 143-146; effects, 146, 
149 ; need for the new, 147 ; 
recommendations for na- 
tional assembly, 163; West- 
ern system adopted, 150 
Eight-legged essays, 148 
Eliot, President C W., quot- 
ed, 33^ 73, 240 
Elliot, Captain, 13, 14 
Ellis, William T., 3, 270 
Empress Dowager, 24, 26; 
action on opium traffic, 114; 
edict on new schools, 153 
England and China, 9 
English ^ language, 86 ; liter- 
ature in schools, 155 
Ethical basis, China's, 93 
Etiquette, ancient and mod- 
ern, changes in, 131 
Evangelistic work, 224; re- 
sults, 225-227 



Evil spirits, belief in, 206 
Evolution finds acceptance, 

191 
Exclusiveness abandoned, 4 



"Father of Railways in 

China," 21 
Feng shui (Fung-shooe), 82, 

96, 187 
Fenn, Dr. C. H., quoted, 272 
Financial, difficulties in school 
work, 152, 158; problems of 
the Republic, 43"45> 49 ; re- 
form, 65 
Five Railway Systems, Na- 
tions Loan, 84, 86, 87 
Fong F. Sec, quoted, 177 
Foochow, 15 

Foot-binding, no, 120-123 
Foreign loans, 95-97; money 
for buildings, 254; trade 
statistics, 101, 102 
France, 24; war with, 21 
Freedom of the press, 171 
Fukien (Foo-jeen), 247, 259 



Germany, 23 

Gibson, Dr. J. C, quoted, 255, 
259, 267, 275 

Giles, Professor H. A., quot- 
ed, 193, 223, 290 

Goodnow, Professor Frank 
X, 50 

Gordon, Gen., quoted, 99 

Government examination sys- 
tem, 22, 24, 144, 145; re- 
forms in, 148, 149; sup- 
planted by Western meth- 
ods, 150 

Government policy toward 
railways, 82-88 



Index 



303 



H 

Hankow bomb factory, 38, 

Hankow-Peking Railway, 104 
Hanyang (Han-yang), 39; 

iron works, 97, 98 
Harada, Tasuka, LL.D., quot- 
ed, 264 
Hart, Sir Robert, work of, 33 
Hibbert Journal, quoted, 69 
Holland, embassy from, 8 
Honan (Honan), 156 
Hongkong, ceded to England, 
15; Morrison school at, 20; 
rioting sailors in. 13 
Hsu (She), General, 202 
Hsuan-Tung (Shooan- 

Toong), infant emperor, 29 
Huang Hui (Hooang Hooe), 

49 
Huang Hsing (Hooang 

Shmg), 210 
Hunan (Hoo-nan), 150 
Hupeh (Hoo-ba), 150, 156, 

248 
Huxley's works read, 191 



Iconoclastic tendencies, 199 

Ideals, divergent,^ 

Ideas of the Orient, change 

in, 3 
Ignorance persisted in, 14 
Illiteracy, 147 
Imperial audience, first given 

to foreigners, 20 
Imperial Maritime Customs 

Service, Sir Robert Hart's 

work in, 33 
Importation of pig iron to 

United States, 97 
Income, China's, 102 
Indemnity, 15, 235, 237 
India, trade routes to, 4; 



Buddhist missionaries from, 

5 
India's educational mistakes, 

163 

Individualism, workings of, 
no, 132, 193, 194 

Inquisition in Spain referred 
to, 64 

Insanity, 224 

Intellectual and Political Cur- 
rents in the Far East, quot- 
ed, 58, 60, 197 

International Review of Mis- 
sions, quoted, 264 

Intoxicants substituted for 
opium, 119 

Investigation of Christianity, 
201 

Iron, 97 

Isolation of China geograph- 
ically, 4 

Italy, "24 

J 

Jacks, L. P., quoted, 69 

Jackson, Dr., tribute to, 222 

Japan, an object lesson, 264; 
changes in, 3; disastrous 
results of war with, 22, 23 ; 
influence of on China, 27, 28 

Japanese as translators, 192 

Jeme Tien-yu, 21 

Jesuits in China, 217 

Jesus Christ, 201 ; compared 
with Confucius, 64, 186; 
statements of Chinese Mul- 
lahs, 208 

Johnson, Dr. Samuel, re- 
ferred to, 171 

Johnston, Mr. Leslie, quoted, 
266 

Jones, Chester Lloyd, quoted, 
52 

Journal of Race Develop- 
ment, quoted, 33, 34, 73, 74, 
240 



304 



Index 



Julian the Apostate, referred 
to, 206 

Justice, missionary interfer- 
ence with, 203 

K 

Kaiping coal-mining railway, 
82 

Kang Hsi (Kang She), Man- 
chu emperor, 8 

Kang Yu-wei (Kang Yoo- 
wa), 24 

Kautsung (Gaoot-zoong), em- 
peror, 6 

Kiaowchow (Keao-jo), 23 

Kipling, Rudyard, quoted, 239 

Koo, V. K. W., quoted, 6 

Korea in dispute, 22 

Kowloon, rioting sailors at, 13 

Kowtow, the, 8, 10, 11 

Kropotkin, P. A., quoted, 37 

Kuang Hsu (Gooang-she), 
emperor, 24, 149 

Ku Hung-ming (Goo Hoong- 
m i n g)> quoted, 197 

Kung Ho Tang (Goong Ho 
Dang), 49 

Kuo Ming Tang (Goo-6 Ming 
Dang), the, 49 

Kwangchow (Gooang-jo), 24 

Kwangsi (Gooang-se), mas- 
sacre of a missionary at, 17 



Labor problems, 92 

Lambert, Miss, quoted on 
education of women, 139 

Laotsze (Low-dse), 187 

Laundryman, the Chinese, 160 

Leper homes, 223 

Liang Chi-chao (Leang Che- 
chow), 24 

Liang Tun-yen (Leang Toon- 
yun), 21 



Li Hung-chang (Le Hoong- 
jang), in United States, 160 

Li Yuan-hung (Le Yooan- 
hoong), Gen., 38, 39; plot 
against, and plotters, 49 

Lin Boon King, Dr., referred 
to, 192 

Lin Tse-su (Lin Dse-se), 
Commissioner, 12, 14; let- 
ter to Queen Victoria, 14 

Lin Wei-hi (Lin Wa-he), 
killed in riot, 13 

Liu Yuk-lin (Leoo Yook-lm), 
21 

Loans : Combined nations, 29, 
44; Crisp, 45; disclosures, 
66, 67; statement of Pres- 
ident Wilson, j6 

Lorcha, Chinese-European 
vessel, 15 



M 



Macao, coolie traffic, 17 ; Lord 
Napier at, 12; Portuguese 
at, 9 

Macartney, Earl of, 10 

Machinery, related to manu- 
factures, 91, 92; causes 
Western trade expansion, 18 

Macnaughten, W., quoted, 211 

Magazines^ 172 

Manchu conservatism, 28 ; 
mistakes, 29, 30, 89 

Manchuria, Russia and Japan 
in,48, 65, 66 

Manila, Chinese in, 7; Olym- 
pic meet, 136 

Marco Polo, 5; made prefect 
of Yangchow, 6 

Marriage customs, old and 
new, 131-133 

Martin, W. A. P., quoted, 143 

Martyr Christians, 258 

Massacre of Chinese in Man- 
ila, 7; of Christians, 6 



Index 



305 



Materialism a menace, 195 
Mayer, W. R, quoted, 290 
Medical work, 220-222, 297 
Men and Missions, quoted, 

276 m 
Mencius and Confucius, 164 
Merrins, Edward M., quoted, 

276 
Metempsychosis and eternal 

peace, 189 
Middle Kingdom, the, 9 
Mileage of railways, 84 
Militarism, growth of, 98, 99 
Mills, 90 
Mills, Mrs., 224 
Mines, hindrances to develop- 
ment, 94, 95 ; undeveloped, 

85 

Ming-Ti (Mmg-Te), emper- 
or, 5 
Ministry of Education, 157 
Mission schools, 165-169, 297 
Missionaries, and opium, 113, 
114; influence of in educa- 
tion, 149, 166-170 
Missions, Protestant, general 
summary of, 216-232; re- 
view of criticisms of, 2^3- 
238; statistical table, 297 
Mistaken missionary policy, 

A, 203, 204 
Modernizing, chief danger of 

rapid, 103 
Mongolia, 65, 66 
Morrison, Dr. G. E., 50 
Morrison, Robert, 217 
Morrison school, the, 20 
Morse, H. B., quoted, 54, 101, 

112, 204 
Murray, Mr., institution in 
Peking, 224 



N 



Names, orthography and pro- 
nunciation of Chinese, 279 



Nanking Industrial Exposi- 
tion, 102, 103, 135 

Nanking, for a time made the 
capital, 39; treaty of, 14, 15 

Napier, Lord, 11, 12 

Napoleon III, 17 

National athletic meet, 135 

National Bible Society of 
Scotland, 230 

National consciousness of 
China aroused, 56 

National Consultative Assem- 
My, 58 

Need, of Christian evangel- 
ists, 267 ; of literature, 266 ; 
of schools, 264, 265 

Nestorians, the, 5 

New Testament, primary aim 
of, 231 

New woman, the, no, 123- 
128, 139 

Newspapers, Chinese, 171 

Ningpo, Portuguese in, 6; 
treaty port, 15 

Non-interference policy, 67, 68 

North China Herald, quoted, 

74 
Noyes, Dr. H. V., quoted, 106, 
242 



O 



Oath of office of new Presi- 
dent, 43 
Olopun, early Nestorian, 5 
Opium, 12-17, no; agreement 
at^ Peking, 116; Great Bri- 
tain's attitude, 116 ; indem- 
nity, 15 ; _ prohibited, 26, 
in; prohibition edict, 291; 
reasons for using, and sta- 
tistics, in; the Hague ap- 
peal, 117; the revolution 
and, 292; traffic legalized, 
112; traffic terminated, 116, 
117; Opium War, 14 



306 



Index 



Opportunities and problems of 
Christianity in China, 205, 
206 

Optimistic viceroy, an, 172 

Oriental possibilities, 68 

Orphanages, 222 



Palmerston, Lord, 11 

Parker, Rev. A. P., D.D., 
quoted, 76, 139 

Parker, Prof. E. H., quoted, 
75 ; opinions of, on Chinese 
tolerance, 202 

Parkes, Harry S., 16 

Parliament, Manchu conces- 
sion too late, 27, 59 

Pastor Hsi (She), referred 
to, 258 

Patience and charity needed, 
258 

"Pavilion of Purple Light," 
the, 20 

Peiho River, 10, 17, 18 

Peking, 17, 18, 27; continues 
as capital, 43, 150; National 
Consultative Assembly in, 
58; ratification of treaties 
at, 18 

Peking Gazette, the oldest 
newspaper, 171 

Peking Syndicate, Limited, 95 

Pennsylvania coal lands com- 
pared with Chinese, 95 

People, The, a revolutionary 
organ, 199 

Peru, coolies in, 17 

Pettus, W. B., quoted, 209 

Philanthropic work, 222-224 

Philippine Opium Commission 
Report, quoted, in; United 
States Government Report, 

Philippines, Spaniards and 
Chinese in the, 7 



Physical culture, no, 133-136 
Picul, the, 113 
Piracy alleged, 16 
Political parties, 49, 50 
Poppy fields of Yunnan, 113 
Population, 286, 287 
Port Arthur, 23 
Portuguese, in China, 6; dis- 
orderly, 6; in coolie traffic, 
17; jealous of England, 8 
Postal system, 100, 101 
Poverty in China, 53, 62 
Prayer request from China, ix 
Preparatory schools, 158 
Presbyterian mission in Man- 
churia, referred to, 222 
Press, an educational force, 

the, 171, 172 
Pride of Chinese, a barrier, 16 
Primary schools essential, 163, 

164 
Primitive Culture, quoted, 194 
Primitive religion of China, 

182 
Prince Regent inefficient, 29 
Problems of the Far East, 

quoted, 69 
Procter, J. T., quoted, 176 
Progressive West, conserva- 
tive East, 8 
Protestant Episcopal mission 

in Shanghai, 22^ 
Puget Sound, Irondale, on, 98 
Putnam Weale, B. L., quoted, 
104 

Q 

Queen Victoria, letter to, 14 



Railways, 81 ; effects of, 85 ; 
growth of, 84; nationalized, 
29; superstition concerning, 
82; systems, 294 



Index 



307 



Recent Events and Present 

Policies in China, quoted, 

70, 137, 209 

Reform and reaction, 24, 25 

Reinsch, Paul S., quoted, 57, 

59, 197 s _ 

Religion in China, quoted, 200 
Religious toleration now com- 
plete, 62-65 
Republic, arguments against 

and for its success, 51-54 
Reshaping of the Far East, 

quoted, 104 
Revelation xxii, 1, 2, quoted, 

215 
Revivals, accounts of, 259 
Revolution, the, 26, 30, 36, 38 
Rhodes, F. Herbert, quoted, 

209 
Richard, Dr. Timothy, 220 
Richthofen, quoted, 95 
Robinson, Canon C. H., quot- 
ed, 181, 245 
"Rocket of China," the, 84 
Roman Catholic orphanage 

and cathedral burned, 20 
Roman Catholic Church, pol- 
icy of, 203 
Ross, Professor E. A., quot- 
ed, 93, 128, 216, 228, 240, 252 
Russia, 8, 45; jealous of Ger- 
many, 23; treaty with em- 
bassy from, 17; war with 
Japan, 27 
Russo-Mongolian convention, 
46 

S 

St. John's College, Shanghai, 

129, 134 
St. John's University, 86, 219 
Salt, a monopoly, 145 
San-Mun (San-Moon), Bay, 

24 
Scholarship, advancement 

only by, 55 



School, grades, 152; statis- 
tics, 156-158, 160-164 

Schools, government, 150-165; 
mission, 149, 165-170 

Self-government, 255, 257 

Self-support, 253, 254 

Shanghai, 15; International 
Council in, 114, 115, 236 

Shanghai and Woosung Rail- 
way, 82 

Shansi (Shan-se) Company, 
the, 95 

Shantung (Shan-doong), 23 

Sheng Kung-pao (Shung 
Koong-bow), 88 

Sianfu (Sean-foo), 150 

Siberia, an early route from 
Russia, 8 

Silk, 89, 90 

Sinkiang (Sm-geang), 6^ f 66, 
248 

Sisters of Charity misunder- 
stood, 144 

Siu-tsai (Seoo-tsi), 20 

Sixth National Convention of 
Y. M. C. A., at Peking, 273, 
274 

Slave Refuge, 128; benefit in 
St. John's College, 129 

Slavery in China, 128, 129 

Smith, Dr. A. H., quoted, 71 

Smuggling opium, 14 

Smyth, Dr. Newman, 261 

Social customs, changes in, 
109, no, 128, 129 

Society for the Diffusion of 
Christian and General 
Knowledge, The, 220 

Spaniards in China, 6 

Spencer's works widely read, 

191 
Sports have become popular, 

134, 135 
Steel rails, 97 
Stuart, J. Leighton, quoted, 

274 



3 o8 



Index 



Students sent to United 
States, 26 

Stuntz, Dr. H. C, 114. 

Summer palace at Peking de- 
stroyed, 18 

Sun Yat-sen (Soon Yat-sun), 
Dr., 2J) a Christian, 204; 
becomes provisional Presi- 
dent, 39; quoted, 106; 
striking career, 40-42 \ 
working to develop rail- 
ways, 85 

Superstitions, barrier to ear- 
lier railway building, 82, 88, 
96, 188 

Szechwan (Se-chwan), 30, 87, 
in, 247 



Tael, the, 113 

Taiping, Rebellion, referred 

to, 201 
Tai Tai (Ti Ti), the, 128 
Taku (Da-Koo), forts, 17, 18 
Talienwan, 23 
Tan Sze-tong (Tan Se-tong), 

referred to, 198 
Tang (Tang) dynasty, 6, 144 
Tang Shao-yi (Tang Show- 

ye), 21 
Tao (Dow), 183, 206 
Tao Kwang (Dow Kwang), 

emperor, 12 
Taoism, 181, 183, 186-188 
Teachers and text-books, 155 
Telegram from Peking, ix 
Telegraph, 99; Peking sta- 
tion, 100; statistics, 100 
"Terrestrial Astrology," 96 
Thomson, John Stuart, quot- 
ed, 33, 73 
Tibet, 46-48, 65, 66 
Tientsin (Teen-tsin), 98-100; 
anti-foreign riot in, 20; 
treaty of, 17, 19 



Times, London, 50 

Tipao (De-bow), 54 

Tokyo schools for Chinese 

youth, 27 
Toleration, religious, 17, 202- 

205 
Tong Kai-son (Tong Kl-son), 

17, 21, 117 
The Trade and Administra- 
tion of the Chinese Empire, 

quoted, 55, 101, 112 
Tract societies and work, 231, 

232 
Treaty, of Peking, 19; of 

Tientsin, 17, 19 
Treaty ports, 15, 17, 19 
Treaties with United States, 

Great Britain, France, and 

Russia, 19 
Tributary nations, 20 
Truthfulness, new spirit of, 

228, 229 
Tseng (Dsung), Marquis, re- 
ferred to, 201 
Tseheng Yuan (Dshung 

Yooan), the, 58 
Tung Men Hui (Toong Mun 

Hooe), the, 50 
Tyler, quoted, 194 
Tzu Hsi (Tsoo She), 121 

U 

Unification needed, 86 
Union University planned at 

Foochow, 169 
United States, 114 
United Universities, 265 
Universities planned, 157, 169, 

265 
Unoccupied fields, 241, 293 
Unrest, social, 109 
Urga, 46 

V 

Varied characteristics in 
China, 86 



Index 



309 



Vassal states, 9 

Vice increasing, 119 

Virgin Mary and the goddess 

of mercy, 190 
Voice of the people heard, 56, 

58 

W 

Wang (Wang), 274 

Wang Yang-min ( W a n g 
Yang-min), quoted, 197 

War, first Anglo-Chinese, 14; 
growing out of Arrow con- 
troversy, 15; implements 
manufactured, 98 

Weddell, Captain John, 9 

W r ei-hai-wei (Wa-hi-wa), 24 

Western languages in univer- 
sities and schools, 157, 158 

Westerners all barbarians in 
early view, 8 

Whampoa harbor, 15 

Whangpoo River, 82 

Wife and opium-smoker, 119 

Williams, Charge d'affaires, 
ix 

Williams, S. W., quoted, 290 

Workers needed, 248; partic- 
ularly natives, 249; perils 
to be faced, 252 ; qualified 
leaders, 250 

World's Christian Students' 
Journal, quoted, 32, 34, 75; 
referred to, 92 

Women, education of, 147; 
emancipation of, 131-133; 
new regard for, 229, 230 

Woosung, 82 

Wright, Dr. Hamilton, 114 



Written language, Chinese, 

165 

Wuchang, 30, 39, 157 

W^u Ting-fang (Woo Ding- 
fang), 41; referred to, 60 

Wyclif, 2^2 



Xavier, Fr., referred to, 27 



Yale University, Chinese stu- 
dents at, 20; recalled, 21 
Yangchow (Yang-jo), 6, 202 
Yang (Yang) and Yin (Yin), 
the, 182, 183, 191, 198, 205- 
207 
Yangtze (Yangtse), riots, 22; 

River, 22, 84, 87, 97 
Yellow Peril, the, 92 
Yen (Yun), W. W., 205 
Yen (Yun), Y. K., M. A., 219 
Yen Hui-Ching (Yun Hooe- 

ching), quoted, 63 
Yin Chang (Yin Chang), 

Gen., 39 
Young men in power, 60 
Yuan Shih-Kai (Yooan She- 
ki), 30, 38, 40-42; Presi- 
dent, 42, 43; toleration 
statement, 205 
Yuen-min-yuen (Yooun-mm- 

yooun), 11 
Yung Cheng (Yoong Jung), 

in 
Yung Wing (Yoong Wing), 

20, 148, 219 
Yunnan (Yoon-nan), poppy 
fields, 113 



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